GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OP THE NILE LYONS. 501 



of Rameses II ; the other is probably a plan of one of the mining cen- 

 ters lying farther to the south. Two valleys run parallel to each other 

 between the mountains, one of them being covered with blocks of 

 stone and bushes, while a w^inding valley unites them. One valley and 

 a narroAv pass are said to lead to the sea ; the name of the place which 

 is reached by following the other valley is not decipherable. Other 

 features in the map are the mountains in which gold is found, and 

 others Avhere it is worked ; a sanctuary of Anion, as well as miners' 

 houses and a water tank or well, around which is shown a patch of 

 cultivation, are indicated. 



Of accurate measurements on the ground we have numerous ex- 

 amples in the pyramids, temples, and rock tombs; the pj^'amids of 

 Giza furnish perhaps the best known and most fully studied instances. 



Not only were the Egyptians of these remote times competent to 

 measure lands and lay out large buildings, but they had attained a 

 very satisfactory accuracy in leveling, and of this the pyramids of 

 Giza again furnish proof. Borchardt, in his paper on " Nilmesscr 

 und Nilstandsmarken," '^ adduces many facts in support of the view 

 that they carried out a line of leveling from the head of the delta to 

 the first cataract in connection with the nilometers which were built 

 at every important town; and this, too, was done wdth a very fair 

 accuracy, since the average slope from the scales on these nilometers 

 works out at 1 in 14,440 against 1 in 13,700, as given to-day by the 

 levels of the irrigation service. The instrument used was a right- 

 angled isosceles triangle of wood, with a plumb line attached to the 

 apex ; it was doubtless used on a long wooden straight edge, which, in 

 its turn, rested on pickets. In this way leveling of a very fair accu- 

 racy could be rapidly executed. 



The principal unit of length from the earliest times was the cubit 

 of 20.6 inches, containing T palms or 28 fingers, which w^as called the 

 royal cubit, distinguishing it from the short cubit of 6 palms. 



For land, a measure of 100 royal cubits, named " khet " or " khet-n- 

 nuh," " a reel of cord," formed the unit, while the usual itinerary 

 measure was the ater, or schoenus. 



The areas of the fields were reckoned in squares of the khet, or 100 

 royal cubits, such a square being called in Egyptian " set," and in 

 Greek " aroura." It was considered as being composed of 100 strips, 

 each 100 cubits long by 1 cubit in breadth. The divisions of the set 

 or aroura were the half, the quarter, and the eighth, after which the 

 cubit became the unit; but in late Ptolemaic times the subdivisions 

 were continued to the thirty-second, and the Greeks carried them 

 further, to the sixty-fourth part. A half aroura was also in use in 

 late Egyptian times, and this exemplifies the approximate methods 



<* Abhandlungen d. konigl. preuss. Akademie, Berlin, 



1906. 



