EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 131 
A fmall part of a bridge remains near Kepht or Coptis, fuf- 
ficient to determine that there once was one, but it is impoffible 
to fay of what sera. There is nothing grand in the ftrudure, 
which confifts of fmall ftones. 
20th. Stopped at Kous, the Apollinopolis parva. Obferved 
at a fmall diftance on the North-eaft an antient gate, adorned 
with figures, and a deep cornice. Kous is a populous town, 
about a mile on the Eaft of the Nile. 
2iftO£tober 1792. PafTed the night at Nakade', where is a 
Catholic convent. On the following day came to Akfor, the 
antient Thebes. 
A brief general retrofped of the topography of Upper Egypt 
may here be given. The towns and cultivation are wholly 
confined to the banks of the Nile, but efpecially on the Eaft. 
Mountains continue to prefent a regular barrier behind on both 
fides. Beyond this natural wall, on the Weft, is a vaft fandy 
defert, traverfed at times by the Muggrebin Arabs ; here and 
there, at the diftance of about a hundred miles or more from 
the Nile, are Oafes or fertile ifles, in the ocean of fand. On the 
Eaft, betv/een the river and the Arabian gulf, are vaft ranges of 
mountains, abounding with marble and porphyry, but generally 
deftitute of water, fo that no town or village can be built. 
Among thefe ranges, however, fome tribes of Bedouin Arabs, 
as the Abahdi and Benl Hojfe'in^ contrive to find fome fertile 
fpots and diminutive fprings, fo as to furnifti refidences for 
about three or four thoufand inhabitants. Even the ftiores of 
s 2 the 
