30 0)1 (he Arabian Frontier of E(/i/pt. 



We are thus led by a chain of natural indications to a fact 

 which will enable us to account for the conflicting statements 

 of some ancient authors, relative to the canal that afterwards 

 occupied this valley. For, even after we have made due al- 

 lowance for the recent accumulations in the narrow gorge of 

 the valley, where the ground rises so strangely, we shall still 

 find that its height above the bottom of the river must have 

 been sufficient to render some amount of artificial excavation 

 necessary at the earliest period to which history will permit 

 us to ascend ; otherv.'ise, great injury might have been done 

 by every inundation of the Nile to the habitations and plan- 

 tations of the early settlers in the valley where so many 

 ruins are found. Although the force of the water, when 

 pressed forward by the rising inundation against this point, 

 would have enabled it at last to excavate a way for itself, 

 the effects of such efi^orts would be devastation to the neigh- 

 bouring district, until the hand of man came to the rescue. 

 A very small amount of labour, a mere deepening of the 

 river's annual channel between Hero and the point of its 

 rapid descent towards the Crocodile lakes, a space of only 

 six miles, would effectually remove this formidable obstacle to 

 their comfort and prosperity, by keeping the river open all 

 the year round. We cannot reasonably suppose that so ne- 

 cessary as well as easy a work, would have remained undone 

 by the most enterprising and industrious of ancient people, 

 since the tract could hardly be habitable until it was done. 



The natural bend of the river, a little beyond the part where 

 its channel might thus have required easing, brought it so 

 near the foot of the low plateau that separates the Crocodile 

 lakes, into which it ran, from the Red Sea, that there are only 

 eight miles distance between that bend and the actual head of 

 the gulf, which, at that time, was near Baal-zephon (sub- 

 sequently known as the Port Daneon, whose ruins are close 

 to the Serapeum of the Antonine itinerary). Since we admit 

 that such a city as Baal-zepiion must have existed on the 

 sea-shore in the time of Moses (which was the golden age of 

 Egyptian history, when its civilization, arts, commercial en- 

 terprise, and warlike renown, had reached a point they never 

 afterwards surpassed) we can scarcely doubt that a partial 



