182 DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
for the ruins of temples, ancient monuments, and 
superb edifices like those which cover the valley of 
Egypt ; we discover no remains of a city, no re- 
mains of a village ; but if a solitary fountain have 
fertilized a small circle of sand in the desert, if a 
lonely tree have extended its shade over the path 
of the traveller, he seems to have given it a name, 
as if it had been a city. This region exhibits the 
form of a triangle, the apex of which is placed at 
Suez, while the two sides are formed by the Red 
Sea and the Nile. In the parallel of Cairo, the 
Nile is scarcely three days' journey distant from the 
sea ; at Keft the distance is considerably increased ; 
in a higher parallel it becomes nine days* journey, 
while at Syene it is computed to be about seven- 
teen, t This district, which, from its eastern si- 
tuation, is denominated Sharkin, a word Latinized 
Saracene, is, by the ancients, frequently termed 
Arabia, from the similarity both of the country and 
of the inhabitants. It is also termed Asiatic E- 
gypt. The chain of mountainous ridges which 
confine the eastern bank of the Nile is so steep 
and precipitous, that it frequently exhibits the as- 
pect of an artificial wall, interrupted at intervals 
by deep and rugged ravines. But as if this na- 
tural defence had not been sufficient, the remains 
of an extensive artificial wall, about twenty-four 
* Maillet's Descr. de 1'Egypte, p. 3 18. 
