THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 6 S 



This is the account of an eye-witnefs, an hiftorian 

 of the firft credit, who mentions Memphis, and this ftate of 

 it, fo late as the reign of Nero ; and therefore I mail con- 

 clude this argument with three obfervations, which, I am 

 very forry to fay, could never have efcaped a man of Dr 

 Shaw's learning and penetration. 



\ft. That by this defcription of Strabo, who was in it, k 

 is plain that the city was not deferted in the time of the 

 Ptolemies. 



idly, That no time, between the building of Alexandria 

 and the time of the Ptolemies, could it be fwallowed up by 

 the river, or its fituation unknown. 



%dfy, That great part of it having been built upon an 

 eminence on the fide of a hill, efpecially the large and mag- 

 nificent edifices I have fpoken of, it could not be fituated, 

 as he fays, low in the bed of the river; for, upon the giving 

 way of the Memphitic rampart, it would be fwallowed up 

 by it. 



If it was fwallowed up by the river, it was not Geeza ; 

 :and this accident muft have been fince Strabo's time, which 

 DrShaw will not aver; and it is by much too loofe arguing 

 to fay, firft, that the place was deftroyed by the violent over- 

 flowing of the river, and then pretend its fituation to be 

 Geeza, where a river never came. 



The defcent of the hill to where the Pyramids were, and 

 the number of Pyramids that were there around it, of which 

 three are remarkable ; the very fandy fituation, and the 



Vol. I. I quantity 



