I 
416 plikt's natueal history. [Book V. 
CHAP. 11. — THE CITIES OE EGYPT. 
Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts tbat 
it contained, in the reign of King Amasis\ 20,000 inhabited 
cities : in our day tbey are still very numerous, though no 
longer of any particular note. Still however we find the • 
following ones mentioned as of great renown — the city of 
Apollo^ ; next, that of Leucothea^ ; then Great Diospolis*, 
othenvise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates ; 
Coptos^, which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its 
nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia ; 
then the town of Venus ^, and then another town of Jupi- 
^ The last king of the line of Psammetichus, B.C. 569. He succeeded 
Apries, whom the Egyptians put to death. He died just before the in- 
vasion by Cambyses, having (fi splayed great abilities as a ruler. 
2 There was the Grreater Apolhnopolis, the modern Edfoo, in the 
Thebaid, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 25° north, about thirteen 
miles below the lesser Cataract : its inhabitants were enemies of the cro- 
codile and its worshippers. The remains of two temples there are con- 
sidered second only to the temple of Denderah as specimens of the sacred 
structures of Egypt. A Lesser ApoUinopoHs was in Upper Egypt, on 
the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 27° north. Another Lesser Apol- 
linopohs was a town of the Thebaid in the Coptite Nome, in lat, 26° 
north, situate between Thebes and Coptos. It was situate at the pre- 
sent Kuss. 
3 Its site is unknown. Hardouin suggests that it is the Eilethuia of 
Ptolemy, the modern El-Kab. 
'* " City of Jupiter," the Greek name for Thebes, the No or No Ammon 
of Scripture. It stood in the centre of the Thebaid, on both banks of the 
Nile, above Coptos, and in the Nomos Coptites. Its ruins, which are the 
most magnificent in the world, enclose within their site the four villages 
of Carnac, Luxor, Medinet Abou, and Groumou. 
5 Its hieroglyphical name was Kobto, and its site is now occupied by 
the modern town of Koufb or Keft. It was situate in lat. 26° north, 
on the right bank of the Nile, about a mile from its banks. As a halting 
place or rather watering-place for the caravans, it was enriched by the 
commerce between Libya and Egypt on the one hand, and Arabia and 
India and Egypt on the other, the latter being carried on through the 
port of Berenice on the Red Sea, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
B.C. 266. In the seventh century of the Christian era, it bore for some 
time the name of JustinianopoUs. There are a few remains of Boman 
buildings to be seen on its site. 
^ Also called Aphrodite or Aphroditopolis. Of this name there 
were several towns or cities in ancient Egypt. In Lower Egypt there 
was Atarbechis, thus named, and a town mentioned by Strabo in the 
aome of Leontopolites. In the Heptanomis or Middle Egypt there was 
