llcS SURGEON-GENERAL SIR C. A. GORDON, M.D.^ K.C.B., ON 



pp. 130-135; also the paper by Professor Legge read before the 

 Victoria Institute. 



Note 2, page 6 (Egypt). 



Thebes. — Supposed to have been established about B.C. 4400, by 

 Menes. During the early dynasties no mention is made of it, 

 but B.C. 2500-2466 it became the capital city of Egypt.* 



Heliopolis. — The obelisk of, set up by Usertsen I about B.C. 

 2433.t 



Memphis. — Supposed to have been established by Menes as 

 above; but the point is conjectural. 



Nilometer ; Canals. — B.C. 2300-2266. In the reign of Amenemhat 

 III, sixth monarch of the XII Dynasty, special attention was paid 

 to the rise of the Nile, canals made of length and breadth propor- 

 tioned to the different situations and wants of the lands, and 

 sluices made for irrigating the country. The rise of the Nile 

 was marked on the I'ocks at Semneh about thirty miles above the 

 second cataract. J The early kings had placed at Memphis a 

 Nilometer. Strabo speaks of a well on the banks of the Nile near 

 the town of Syene made for that purpose. At the present day 

 there is a Nilometer at Cairo, namely, on the island of Rodda, 

 but it is of comparatively modern date, having been erected 

 by the Kaliph Suliman a.d. 715-717. In the days of the early 

 Roman emperors, dating from B.C. 27, there was a Nilometer on 

 the island of Elephanta ; but in consequence of the rise of the 

 river bed, the high scale of that instrument is now below the level 

 of the ordinary high Nile. A Nilometer also exists on the island 

 of Philae.§ 



Lake Moeris. — Constructed under the same reign as the 

 Nilometer. Its extent, about one hundred and eighty French 

 leagues, and three hundred feet deep. It had a communication 

 with the Nile by a great canal more than four leagues long and 

 fifty feet broad. || 



Tlie Labyrinth. — Stood on the shore of Lake Moeris. Also 

 erected at the same date as that in which that lake was con- 

 structed. 



Pyramids. — B.C. 3733-3333. Those of Ghizeh and Sakkara 

 raised. 



Note 3, page 18. 



Communication with Weste7-7i Nations. — In or about B.C. 1118 an 

 embassy from Egypt is said to have arrived at the court of 

 Ching Wang, they having made their journey in " a floating 



* Ezek. XXX, 14 ; Nahum iii, 8. t Gen. xli, 45 ; Jerem. xliii, 13. 



I Eollin, vol. i, p. 13. § The Nile. E. A. Wallis Budge 



II RoUin, vol. i, p. 9. 



