ISO DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
nations who have conquered the country, that it 
is impossible to recognize any certain traces of 
their ancient denominations. The cities which 
flourished during the different periods of Egyptian 
glory, during the Persian, Grecian, Roman, Chris- 
tian, and Saracen dynasties, have not only been 
erected on the ruins of more ancient edifices, 
but, in the Turkish and Mameluk periods, their 
sites have been partially changed, cities celebrat- 
ed in history are buried in their own ruins, and 
the traveller searches for them in vain within the 
circuit of their ancient walls. The proper sea- 
coast of Egypt, reaching along the Mediterra- 
nean from the Plinthine bay to the lake Sirbonis, 
in the vicinity of Mount Casius, comprehends 
an extent of ^01 G. miles.* In the vicinity 
of the Plinthine bay is the position of Taposiris, 
the tower of the Arabs, or Abusir j the Nici^ 
Pagus of Strabo was placed a little to the east- 
w^ard, and between its position and] Alexandria 
was the site of the Chersonesus Parva of Ptolemy. 
Mareia, the Palsemaria of Ptolemy, placed by 
Herodotus on the confines of Egypt and Libya, 
coincides with the modern Mariout on the north 
of the lake Mareotis. The lake Mareotis, proba- 
bly at first an arm of the sea, occupied, in the 
time of Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, an extent of 
* Rennell's Geograph. System of Herodotus, p. 522. 
