THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 101 



look older at iixteen, than many Englifh women at fixty, fo 

 that you are to look for beauty here in childhood only. 



Achmim appears to be the Panopolis of the ancients, not 

 only by its latitude, but alfo by an infcription of a very large 

 triumphal arch, a few hundred yards fouth of the convent. 

 It is built with marble by the Emperor Nero, and is dedi- 

 cated in a Greek infcription, iiani ©eq. The columns that 

 were in its front are broken and thrown away; the arch it- 

 felf is either funk into the ground, or overturned on the 

 fide, with little feparation of the feveral pieces. 



The 24th of December we left Achmim, and came to the 

 village Shekh Ali on the weft, two miles and a quarter dif- 

 tant. We then palled Hamdi, about the fame diftance far- 

 ther fouth ; Aboudarac and Salladi on the eafl ; then Salladi 

 Garbieh, and Salladi Shergieh on the eaft and weft, as the 

 names import ; and a number of villages, almoft oppofite, 

 on each fide of the river. 



At three o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at Girge, 

 the largeft town we had feen fince we left Cairo ; which, 

 by the latitude Ptolemy has very rightly placed it in, mould 

 be the Diofpolis Parva, and not Gawa, as Mr Norden makes 

 it. For this we know is the beginning of the Diofpolitan 

 nome, and is near a remarkable crook of the Nile, as it 

 fhould be. It is alfo on the weftern fide of the river, as 

 Diofpolis was, and at a proper diftance from Dendera, the 

 ancient Tentyra, a mark which cannot be miftaken. 



The Nile makes a kind of loop here ; is very broad, and 

 the current ftrong. We palled it with a wind at north; but 



the 



