THE SOURCE OF T H E N I L E, 59. 



Babylon, or Cairo, as it is now called, is fixed by the Ca- 

 iifh or Amnis Trajanus palling through it. Ptolemy * fays 

 fo, and Dr Shaw fays that Geeza was oppofite to Cairo, or in: 

 a line eaft and well from it, and is the ancient Memphis.- 



Now, if Babylon is lat. 30 , and fo is Geeza, they may be 

 oppoiite to one another in a line, of eaft and weft. But if 

 the latitude of Memphis is 29 50 7 , it cannot be at Geeza,- 

 which is oppofite to Babylon r but ten miles farther fouth,. 

 in which cafe it cannot be oppoiite to Babylon or Cairo. 

 Again, if the. point of the Delta be in lat. 30 , Babylon, or 

 Cairo, 3o Q y jmd Geeza be 30 , then the point of the Delta: 

 cannot be ten miles from Cairo or Babylon, or ten miles, 

 from Geeza.. 



It is ten miles from Geeza, and ten miles from Babylon ? 

 or Cairo, and therefore the diftances do not agree as Dr 

 Shaw fays they do , nor can the point of the Delta x as he 

 fays, be a permanent boundary coniiftently with his own' 

 figures and thofe of Ptolemy, but it mult have been warned" 

 away, or gone io 7 northward; for Babylon, as he fays, is 

 a certain boundary fixed by the Amnis Trajanus, and, fuppo- 

 fing the Delta had been a fixed boundary, and in lat. 30 , 

 then the diftance of fifteen miles would juft have made up 

 the fpace that Pliny fays was between that point and Mem- 

 phis, if we fuppofe that great city was at Metrahenny. - 



I shall fay nothing as to his next argument in relation 

 to the diftance of Geeza from the Pyramids ; becaufe, ma- 

 ll 2, king 



*'Ptol. Geograph. lib. iv. cap. 5.;- 



