194 DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYFT* 
are productive of dates, and watered by excellent 
springs. The largest of the intermediate sandy 
plains is about twenty-eight miles in breadth. The 
descent of the Egyptian mountains is steep and rug- 
ged, and the hills are chiefly composed of a coarse 
species of tufa. From the top of the declivity 
which descends into the Great Desert, the view ex- 
tends over an unbounded plain, covered with rocks 
and sand, but in the vicinity of the springs, diver- 
sified with stunted shrubs and scattered date trees. 
The mountain, down the declivities of which the 
caravans of Egypt descend into the valley of the 
Oasis, is named Gebel Ramlie, and forms a part 
of that extensive range which runs parallel to the 
general course of the Nile, and bending to the 
west after it passes the Lesser Oasis, terminates on 
the shore of the Mediterranean, about forty miles 
to the east of Parsetonium, in a position corre- 
sponding to the Lesser Catabathmus. No part of 
the Greater Oasis approaches nearer the valley of 
Egypt than seventy- eight or eighty G. miles. 
During the domination of the latter Greek or 
Constantinopolitan monarchs in Egypt, the Great- 
er Oasis, as well as Ammonia, was considered as a 
great state prison, to which illustrious exiles were 
banished. Of this punishment Athanasius com- 
plains in his Apology, and in the Digest, it is 
mentioned as a particular species of exile, f Nes* 
* Digest, I. xlviii. tit. 22. 
