BOOK 11. Lxxiv. 182-LXXV. 185 



shadow of the pin or ' gnomon ' measures a h'ttle 

 more than half the length of the gnomon itself, 

 whereas in the city of Rome the shadow is |^th shorter 

 than the gnomon, at the towTi of Ancona ■^gth longer, 

 and in the district of Italy called Venezia the shadow 

 is equal to the gnomon, at the same hours. 



LXXV. Similarly it is reported that at the town 

 of Syene, 5000 stades South of Alexandria, at noon 

 in midsummer no shadow is cast, and that in a well 

 made for the sake of testing this the light reaches 

 to the bottom, clearly sho^ving that the sun is 

 vertically above that place at the time ; and this is 

 stated in the writings of Onesicritus also to occur at 

 the same time in India South of the river Hypasis." 

 It is also stated that in the Cave-dwellers' city of 

 Berenice, and 4820 stades away at the town of 

 Ptolemais in the same tribe, which was founded 

 on the shore of the Red Sea for the earhest elephant 

 hunts, the same thing occurs 45 days before and 45 

 days after midsummer, and during that period of 90 

 days the shadows are thrown southward. Again in 

 Meroe — this is an inhabited island in the river Nile 

 5000 stades from Syene, and is the capital of the 

 Aethiopian race — the shadows disappear twice a 

 year, when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus 

 and in the 14th of Leo. There is a mountain named 

 Maleus in the Indian tribe of the Oretes, near which 

 shadows are throwTi southward in summer and 

 northward in winter ; the northern constellation is 

 visible there on only 15 nights. Also in India at the 

 well-known port of Patala the sun rises on the right 

 and shadows fall southward. It was noticed when stars and 

 Alexander was staying at this place that the Great and '<*"'"<^' 

 Little Bears were visible only in the early part of the 



317 



