MAPS AND MAP-MAKING BEFORE MERCATOR. 479 



into the lower Euphrates, a little to the north of the head of the Per- 

 sian Gulf, the country whence the people or race came that built Baby- 

 lon, and founded the Chaldean civilization. The age of this topographi- 

 cal work is unknown, but it is assumed to be as old, at least, as the 

 seventh century before Christ, It represents, iu a rude form of design, 

 the plan of the town, its walls, the citadel, the king's palace, and a 

 central square surrounded on three sides by what is either a wall or a 

 colonnade of buildings of uniform character. On the remaining square 

 is a large gateway, and the suburbs surrounding the town are repre- 

 sented as planted with date-trees and interspersed with buildings to 

 the banks of the river. 



The Egyptians had maps, although but little is known of them. 

 There is a papyrus preserved in the museum at Boolak containing a 

 map of Lake Moeris, on the Nile. It shows the plan of the basin with 

 its canal, and the position of towns and of certain sanctuaries upon the 

 borders of the basin, with explanatory texts giving information respect- 

 ing these places. There is also an old Egyptian map preserved at 



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Fia. 1.— Homer's World. 



Turin of what is now Wady Alaiki, where the Nubian gold-mines 

 were situated, in the land anciently called Aki-ta. It is a mountain- 

 ous country, of dreary, sterile, waterless valleys, where men and beasts 

 died upon the roads to these mines. The map shows the mountain- 

 tracts, the rocks, and the places where gold was found, the ore-bearing 

 mountains being marked in red color. It also shows the wells, a tem- 

 ple erected to Ammon on the mountain, and the appurtenances and 

 buildings in the gold-districts. The roads, which had been abandoned, 

 leading to the sea, are also given. " Nothing," says Brugsch Bey, " is 



