DAILY ITINERARY OF MESSRS. COOK'S TOURIST STEAMER SERVICE BETWEEN ASWAN (SHALLAL) AND WÂDI ḤALFAH.

Ist Day. Leave Aswân (Shallâl) at 9.10 a.m., passing Dabôd, Kartassi, and Kalâbshah (the temples are visited on the return journey), and halting at Dandûr and at Garf Ḥusên to visit those temples (pp. 516-521).

2nd Day.-Steam to Sabû‘a. Visit the temple and the mounds of sixteen Sphinxes, and proceed to 'Amâdah (ancient temple) and past Derr to Ibrîm in time for the wonderful View of Sunset from the Nile (pp. 525-528).

3rd Day.-Steam to Abu Simbel. Visit the Great Temple of Rameses II (p. 530).

4th Day.-Steam to Wâdî Ḥalfah (p. 539), arriving about I p.m.

5th Day.-Visit Abu Şîr (magnificent view of the northern end of the Second Cataract), the village of Tawfikîyah and its bâzârs (pp. 539-541).

6th Day.-Return from Wâdî Ḥalfah, steam to Gabal Addah and visit the rock temple (p. 537), thence to Dakkah (p. 521) or further north for the night.

Visit the temples

7th Day. Steam to Kalâbshah. (p. 517), and arrive at Shallâl in the afternoon.

I. CAIRO TO LUXOR BY RAILWAY.

The journey from Cairo to Aswân, if the traveller be disposed to proceed thither direct, occupies between 22 and 23 hours; the distance from Cairo to Luxor is 420, and from Luxor to Aswân is 130 miles. The ordinary gauge is used from Cairo to Luxor, and a narrower gauge from Luxor to Aswân; this necessitates change of carriage at Luxor.

After leaving Cairo the first station passed is Gîzah, with 18,714 inhabitants, the capital of the province of that name; the next station is Ḥawâmdîyah, with 7,688 inhabitants. Badrashên, at mile 14, with 7,947 inhabitants, is the stopping place for visitors to Sakkârah; having passed Maz'ûnah, with 2,370 inhabitants, the little village of Al-'Ayât, with 3,182 inhabitants, is reached at mile 31. Near the village of Matânîyah, with 3,738 inhabitants, are the Pyramids of Lisht, where Amenemhat I and Usertsen I, kings of the XIIth dynasty, built their tombs. In 1908-14 the officials of

the Metropolitan Museum of New York carried out a series of important excavations on the pyramid-field of Lisht. They excavated the northern pyramids, that of Usertsen I, and the tomb of I-em-hetep, High Priest of Hermopolis. Among their spoil was a foundation deposit of Usertsen I, two wooden statues of the king (each 2 feet high), one wearing the crown of the north and the other the crown of the south, and a wooden shrine containing a model of the symbol associated with Osiris, namely the pied bull's skin, headless, attached to a rod inserted in a funerary vase. Round about the southern pyramid, that of Amenemhat I, they discovered several tombs of the Ancient Empire, and obtained from them many objects of interest.

The next station is Kafr 'Ammar, with 6,702 inhabitants, at mile 46. Rikkah, with 2,971 inhabitants, the next station, is the stopping place for visitors to the Pyramid and Maṣṭabah tombs of Mêdûm. In the winter of 1909-10 Professor Petrie excavated a number of tombs at Mêdûm, which he describes as follows ::

"The mound over the tomb No. 17 was mined through to a depth of 45 feet. At the bottom was found a closed stone building, which had "been completely buried beneath the mound, without leaving any external "opening. The burial had, therefore, taken place before the mound was "thrown up, and as the material of the mound was clearly from the "mason's waste left in building the pyramid adjacent, the burial must "have been made before the date of the Pyramid of Sneferu, 4650 B.C. "This was the earliest private stone tomb that could be dated.

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The

passages were lofty, and the great chamber was roofed with beams of "stone which weighed up to 40 tons each. In a recess at the end of the "hall stood the sarcophagus of red granite, the oldest stone sarcophagus "known. The burial was of the greatest interest, as it showed that the "body was completely unfleshed before it was wrapped in linen. The "bones had been completely stripped and severed, excepting that the spine was not dissevered. Each bone was then wrapped separately in "fine linen, the spine was packed closely with linen, and linen was "pressed into the empty eye sockets. The skull, which was found with "the rest of the bones, as compared with the usual Egyptian heads, was "large, with narrow face, extremely orthognathous, and very narrow nose. "The neighbouring tomb of the noble Nefer-maat was the largest of all, "the size being 380 feet by 206 feet. The body of it was of Nile mud. "A pit 34 feet square had been sunk in the rock, 5 feet of mud had been poured into it and left to harden, then the stone chamber had been "built upon that, and heaped over and around with large blocks of stone. "This arrangement was unique, as also was the inlaid colour decoration "of the tomb-chapel. The burial of Nefer-maat again proved to have "been an unfleshed skeleton. It was in bad condition, as the last workman before closing the chamber had rifled the body and broken up the "wooden coffin."

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The pyramid of Mêdûm, called by the Arabs Al-Haram al-Kiddâb, or "the False Pyramid," is so named because it is unlike any of the other pyramids known to

them; it was probably built by Seneferu, (1† »

the first king of the IVth dynasty, for the name of this king is found at various places in and about it. The pyramid is about 115 feet high, and consists of three stages; the first is 70, the second 20, and the third about 25 feet high. The stone for this building was brought from the Mukaṭṭam Hills, but it was never finished ; as in all other pyramids, the entrance is on the north side. When opened in modern times the sarcophagus chamber was found empty, and it would seem that this pyramid had been entered and rifled in ancient days. It was opened by Professor Maspero in 1881, and 10 years later was examined by Professor Petrie. On the north of this pyramid are a number of maṣṭabahs in which "royal relatives" of Seneferu are buried; the most interesting of these are the tombs of Nefermaāt, one of his

feudal chiefs (erpā hā), and of Atet his widow.

The reliefs and paintings in the tomb of Rā-ḥetep are very good. The sculptures and general style of the work are similar to those found in the maṣṭabahs of Ṣakkârah.

Opposite Rikkah, across the Nile, is Atfiḥ, with 10,221 inhabitants, which marks the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Tep-ȧhet, the Aphroditopolis of the Greeks, who regarded it as one of the chief cities of the Heptanomis.* The deity of the town was a form of Hathor, incarnate in a cow. In the mountains to the east of the town St. Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian asceticism, was born at Coma, A.D. 250; he died in 355, aged 105 years. About mile 57, Al-Wastah, with 3,388 inhabitants, is reached, and passengers for the Fayyûm change here (see pp. 241-245).

The Fayyum.--The stations on the line to Madînat al-Fayyûm are Sêlah,† with 10,258 inhabitants, 13'4 kilometres from Madinat al-Fayyûm; 'Adwah, with 5,987 inhabitants, 77 kilometres from Madînat al-Fayyûm; and Al-Maşlûb, with

*I.e., Middle Egypt, or the district that lies between Egypt and the Thebaïd. The seven nomes in it were Memphites, Herakleopolites, Crocodilopolites, Aphroditopolites, Oxyrhynchites, Cynopolites, Hermopclites.

For an account of the Pyramid of Sêlah and its examination by Dr. Borchardt in 1898, see Annales du Service, Cairo, 1900, p. 211.

2,785 inhabitants, 4 kilometres from Madînat al-Fayyum, the capital of the Province of the Fayyûm, with 44,400 inhabitants, 1293 kilometres from Cairo. The main line runs on to Al-Mandarah, with 2,017 inhabitants, and then to Sinarû, with 8,433 inhabitants, 113 kilometres from the capital; the branch to Biyamû, with 2,918 inhabitants, then to the terminus, Sannures, with 18,852 inhabitants, 12 kilometres from Madînat al-Fayyûm. Mr. H. W. Seton-Karr made excavations in the western district and discovered, a little to the north of the Fayyûm, the remains of a Neolithic settlement, and in the Province of the Fayyûm itself he found large numbers of flints belonging to the Neolithic Period. These include disks about 10 centm. in diameter, scrapers, like the Paleolithic "racloir," and two types peculiar to the Fayyum. The first type is a rough, irregularly shaped flat knife, pointed at both ends, and the second is a round, or oval, flat knife, with a concave edge. (Report, U.S. Nat. Hist. Museum, 1904, pp. 745-751.)

Passing Bani-Hudêr, with 1,783 inhabitants; Ashmant, with 6,446 inhabitants; and Bûsh, with 13,842 inhabitants, we come, at mile 73, to Bani Suwêf, with 31,986 inhabitants; this town is the capital of the province bearing the same name, and is governed by a Mûdir. In ancient days it was famous for its textile fabrics, and supplied Akhmîm and other weaving cities of Upper Egypt with flax. A main road leads from this town to the Fayyûm. About 12 miles to the north of Bani Suwêf the Bahr Yûsuf bends towards the east, and runs by the side of large mounds of ruins of houses, broken pottery, etc.; these mounds cover an area of 360 acres, and are commonly called Umm al-Kûmân, or " Mother of Heaps of dust," though the official name is Hanassîyah al-Madinah or Ahnâs, with 8,120 inhabitants. They mark the site of the great city which was

which the Jews made the name DT, and the Copts &нC; the Greeks made this city the capital of the nome Herakleopolites, and called it Herakleopolis. No date can be assigned for the founding of the city, but it was certainly a famous place in the early empire, and in mythological texts great importance is ascribed to it. According to Manetho, the kings of the IXth and Xth dynasties were Herakleopolitans, but in the excavations which Messrs. Naville and Petrie

BÎBAH, OXYRRHYNCHUS, CYNOPOLIS, ETC.

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carried on at Hanassîyah, or Ahnâs, they found nothing there older than the XIIth dynasty. Travellers who wish to visit the famous Monastery of Saints Anthony and Paule, the first great Christian ascetics, near the Red Sea, usually set out on their road from the village of Biyâd al-Nașâra (population 2,096), which lies to the east of the town. The Monastery is about 90 miles from the Nile and 20 from the Red Sea.

Passing Bîbah, with 12,642 inhabitants, we come to Fashn, with 13,953 inhabitants, near which are the ruins of the city of Het-Bennu (Al-Hibah, population 1,650), where the Phoenix was worshipped, and after Fant, with 5,909 inhabitants, we arrive at Maghaghah, with 10,480 inhabitants, 108 miles from Cairo. This town is now celebrated for its large sugar manufactory, which is lighted by gas, and is well worth a visit; the manufacturing of sugar begins here early in January.

About 24 miles farther south, lying inland, on the western side of the Nile, between the river and the Bahr Yûsuf, is the site of the town of Oxyrrhynchus, so called by the Greeks on account of the fish which they believed was worshipped there. The Egyptian name of the town was Permatchet, whence the corrupt Arabic form Behnesa, with 2,961 inhabitants. The excavations made here by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt have been attended with important results.

A little above Abû Girgâ, and near Bani Mazar (with 11,699 inhabitants), on the west bank of the Nile, is the town of Al-Kes (with 6,613 inhabitants), which marks the site of the ancient Cynopolis or "Dog-city"; it was the seat of a Coptic bishop. Thirteen miles from Abû Girgâ, also on the west bank of the Nile, and a few miles south of Mațâi, an important railway junction (with 5,396 inhabitants), is the town of Kulussanâ, with 7,320 inhabitants, 134 miles from Cairo, and a few miles south, lying inland, is Samâlût, with 8,988 inhabitants. Farther south, on the east bank of the Nile, is Gabal at-Têr, or the "Bird mountain," so called because tradition says that all the birds of Egypt assemble here once a year, and that they leave behind them when departing one solitary bird that remains there until they return the following year to relieve him of his watch, and to set another in his place. As there are mountains called Gabal at-Têr in all parts of Arabic-speaking countries, because of the number of birds which frequent them, the story is only one which springs from the fertile Arab imagination. Gabal at-Têr rises above the river to a height