4.0 The ancient Situation 



fome learned Gentlemen, of my Acquaintance, fuppofe to be 

 the fame that was begun by Menes\ and confequently, that 

 Memphis muft be lituated near the Lake Myr'is. They argue 

 further, that this Lake is called at prefent the Lake of Charon, 

 who ferryed the dead Bodies over it from Memphis to the 

 Tlain of the ^Mummies or the Efyfian Fields, as this Story 

 was improved by Orpheus and the Grecimi Mythologifts. 

 Jade^^b^ -^s f"^^ ^^ Story o^ Charon and the Elyfian Fields, it is too 

 Mr" wTre full of Fablc and Allegory to build any Geographical Tiata upon. 

 fame/''*' Neither does it appear that the Lakes made by Menes and 

 Myris are the fame ; on the contrary, they were certainly dif- 

 ferent Performances. For the latter was far enough removed 

 from Memphis \ being, according to TUny ', at lxxii. Miles 

 Diftance. And moreover, it was of fuch a prodigious Circuit 

 and Extent, that all the correfpondent Part of Egypt, which 

 lyes bounded by the Arahian and Libyan Mountains, would 

 The We- be an inlisnificant Spot in Comparifon to it. And further; 



fternLakeof o r J. of \ 



Memphis znd^\^Ql^2L\iQ of M/ris ^ lay altogether to the Weftward ; (-c^ tJ 

 ""l^y/'b ^^Sflji^v -{h i^Ti^p Mi;w^i©-, Herod. Eut. p. i68.) on the other Side oj the 

 Charon. Mountain, under which Memphis was Jituated\ and therefore 

 could have no Communication at all with it. Whereas one of 

 the Lakes, made by Menes, was to the Northward of that City ; 

 as the other (the ^cherufia, as I take it to be, of Diodorus ',) 

 lay to the Weftward, under the Eaftern Brow of the fame 

 Mountain. And as this Lake might be continued all along the 

 Side of thefe Mountains, from the Tjramids even unto the 

 very Neighbourhood of Saccara ; ( feveral other Places, no 

 doubt, of Sepulture intervening) it will thereby much better 

 accord with the Hiftory of Charon and his ferrying dead Bo- 

 dies, from Memphis, oYQr the y^cheru/ia, to the Plains of the 

 Mummies or Elyfian Fields, than the remote and extenfive 

 Lake of Nlyris. 



1 Inter ArCnoiten autem ac Memphiten lacus fuit circuitu ccl. M. P. aut ut Mutlanus 

 tradit ccccl. M. P. & altitudinis quinquaginta pafTuum, manu fadus a Regc qui fecerat, 

 moeridis appellatur. Inde jlxxii. M. P. abeft Memphis, quondam Arx ^gypti Regum. 

 Flin. 1. y. c. p. Vid. D'lod. Sic. BibJ. 1. i. in fine. 



2 Vid. Chryfanthin Map III. 



f/ei" AXEPOTSIANi TiKtifioy JV %gw >} Meju?/®', oymt "sfei aiirh f^fn/cSyar Ktthf\.i^y, hay, i^ asitS kcu 

 KithiiM. p. 6l. 



We 



