DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
137 
oracle of Latona, * in a temple remarkable for its 
magnificence. The shrine, composed of one enor- 
mous mass of granite, about sixty feet square, was 
hewn in a quarry in the island Philae, near the 
cataracts of the Nile, and brought down the river 
on rafts, to the distance of two hundred leagues. 
This work of immense labour is characteristic of the 
genius of the men who built the pyramids. In the 
time of Herodotus, " the great Butos" stood upon 
the Sebennitic branch of the Nile. This branch 
seems either to have varied its course, or to have 
been divided into different channels ; for, accord- 
ing to Strabo, it falls into the sea at the extreme 
point of the Delta, which is about thirty G. miles 
distant from the Nile of Rosetta. $ais ? the Sah of 
Edrisi and of the modern Egyptians, 5 and formerly 
the metropolis of Lower Egypt, was situated about 
eight miles from Naucratis. It was celebrated for 
a famous temple of Minerva. On the eastern side 
of this province, the more considerable towns are 
situated along the Nile of Damietta ; but the po- 
pulous and flourishing cities of the Egyptian, Gre- 
cian, and Arabian periods, only exhibit the wrecks 
of their former greatness. Busiris retains its an- 
cient name, but preserves no vestiges of the splen- 
dour it displayed, when the shrine of Isis attract* 
* Strabo. Casaubon. p. 1154. 
