DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
corresponding 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 Greater Oasis, as well as Ammonia, was con- 
sidered as a great state prison, to which illustri- 
ous exiles were banished. Of this punishment 
Athanasius complains in his Apology, and in the 
Digest it is mentioned as a particular species of 
exile.* Nestorius appears to have been an exile 
in this region when the Oasis was ravaged, in the 
fifth century, by the Biemmyes, an Ethiopian 
tribe. The Arabians have preserved a tradition, 
that the district Al Wahat, which contains these 
Oases, was once populous and full of cities ; and 
Edrisi asserts, that the vestiges of trees, and the 
ruins of deserted habitations, were often in his 
time discovered amid its deserts. 
After comparing the ancient and modern po- 
pulation of Egypt, it may be proper to consider 
its comparative population. The ancients, Hero- 
dotus and Diodorus, estimate the number of cities 
in Egypt at 20,000 ; and Maillet, who was ac- 
quainted with the country, absurdly adopts this 
computation. As the utmost efforts of industry 
could not have put in a state of cultivation more 
* Digest, 1. xlviii. tit, 22. 
