HELIOPOLIS. 137 
or Pilgrims Lake, which was the first station of chap. 
the great Caravan, in its journey to Mecca, We , ^^ 
soon found our progress obstructed by the arch 
of a bridge, which was so low, that our djerm 
could not pass beneath it, and we were com- 
pelled to return. 
The next day, having obtained horses and a visit to 
Janissary, we set out again, in the same direction, 
by land, desirous of seeing the remains of 
Heliotolis, one of the most antient cities of 
the world of which a vestige can now be traced. 
More than eighteen hundred years ago, its ruins 
decurrit LXii titilLpass. inlervallo, quod inter fiumai et Rnhrum mare 
interest) primus omnium Sesostris jEgypti rex cogitavit : mox Darius 
Persarum: deinde Ptolemceus sequens: qui et duxit fossam latitudine 
pedum centum, altitudine triginta, in longitudinem xxxvii mill, d pass, 
usque ad fonfes amaros : ultra deterruit imcndationis metus, excelsiore 
tribus cuhitis Rubra mari comperto, quam terra ^^gi/pli." (Plin. Hist. 
Nat. lib. vi. cap. 29. torn. I. p. 331. L. Bat. 1G35.) Accorilinj to the 
passage which Savari/ has translated from Elmacin, Omar's lieutenant, 
Amrou^ opened the communication between the Red Sea and the Nile 
by means of this canal ; and a navigation, bearitig the produce (;f 
Egypt, actually commenced. " Les bateaux par tant de Fostat, port e- 
rent dans la Mer de Colznum les denrees de VEgypte." (Voy. Lett, sur 
I'Egypte, tom.l. p.96. Paris, 11 93.) "Such," says Savary, " is the 
origin of that famous canal, which travellers, copying each other, 
have called Amiius Trajanus." Be it remembered, however, that in 
this number are Pococke and Shaw: and with all deference to Savory's 
great abilities, and to his predilection for Arabic histories, it may he 
presumed that neither of these writers was unacquainted with the 
sources whence the French author derived his information. 
