ALEXANDRIA TO COS. 411 
confined and desert space, could those cities chap. 
have been placed ? Notwithstanding the very . 
general observation to which the whole district 
has been recently exposed, nothing is less de- 
cided than the locality of any one of those 
places. Until lately, we had not the smallest 
idea of the geography of this part of Egypt*; 
and even now, when we are become acquainted 
with it, it exhibits only a long ridge of sand, 
extending east and tvest, for about a dozen or 
fifteen miles, which seems liable, at every in- 
stant, to be washed into the sea\ If, as some 
have supposed", jibouhir denote the site of 
Canopus, the ruins engraved by Denon'' under 
that name may have belonged to Parva Tapo- 
siris^; or to the antient fane, alluded to by 
(4) See any of the Maps of Egypt previous to the landing of the 
English army in 180. 
(5) See the " Survey of the Country between Moukir and Alex- 
andria," Map facing p. Z^O of the Third rolujnc, Octavo edit. 
(6) Sec the Notes to the Oxford edit, of Straho, p. 1135, note 31. 
(7) See PI. 8. Fig. 2. torn, II. of the large Paiis edition. 
(8) They were thus alluded to by Colonel Squire. " Three leagues 
eastward of Alexandria, immediately on the sea-shore, are the ruins 
of very superb and extensive buildings. It is imagined these formed 
part of the city of Taposiris parva. Here are also cut out of the 
solid rock a number of places which have the appearance of baths. 
Not far from this spot, at a short distance in the sea, may be seen the 
fragments of several pieces of antient sculpture, granite and marble 
Sphinxes, a colossal fluted statue with the head of a dog, an immense 
granite fist, and other relics, plainly indicating the site of a temple." 
Colonel Squire's MS. Letters. 
