to provide and prepare workers to carry on the educational and evangelistic operations of the Evangelical community in Egypt, and nearly all the male teachers have been trained in it.*

The Arabic geographers describe Asyût as a town of considerable size, beauty, and importance, and before the abandonment of the Sûdân by the Khedive all caravans from that region stopped there. In the hills to the west of the town are a number of ancient Egyptian tombs, which date back as far as the VIIIth dynasty. The most important of these is the Tomb of Ḥeptchefa, which is large and most interesting. The deceased was Viceroy of Nubia under Usertsen I, of the XIIth dynasty, and he died and was buried at Karmah, near the head of the Third Cataract. His tomb in Nubia was discovered by Dr. Reisner. Hence the tomb at Asyût was never used by Heptchefa. The tomb of Khati, who flourished under the IXth dynasty, and of Tefåb, should be visited. The ancient history of the town is obscure. Events of great importance mythologically seem to have taken place here, and the importance which Asyût possessed was rather religious than political. Christianity found a resting place here very soon after Anthony the Great began to teach Asceticism, and the large rock-hewn tombs in the hills to the west of the town became the abodes of great numbers of monks and solitaries. These fanatics destroyed the statues in the tombs and defaced the pictures of the gods on the walls, because in their heated imaginations they thought they were devils appearing to them. One of the most famous of the Christian teachers of this place was John, commonly known as John of Lycopolis, whose life is given us by Palladius. He is said to have declared to the Emperor Theodosius that he would conquer Maximus the rebel, and defeat Eugenius, both of which things took place. In 1912-13 Sa'id Bey Khashabah, a native of Asyût, excavated a considerable number of tombs at Durunkah, a village with 7,679 inhabitants. About a mile from the town he found many fine rectangular wooden sarcophagi of the period of the XIth and XIIth dynasties, and a few fine burials of the Christian period. The men buried in these tombs were nobles and officials of the town of Shas-hetep, which was about five miles from Durunkah, and is represented by the village of Shutb (with 5,236 inhabitants). From time immemorial the caravans

*See page 149. The history of the work which the Mission has carried on with such conspicuous success is modestly told by Dr. Andrew Watson in the "American Mission of Egypt, 1854-1896," Pittsburg, 1898.

for Dâr Fûr and Kordofân by the Darb al-Arba'în route have started at Asyût. The town is beautifully situated on a fine wide plain, and the view of the Inundation here by moonlight is a thing never to be forgotten. The Barrage at Asyût has already been described in a separate section of this work (see pp. 77 f).

Fifteen miles farther south is the Coptic town of Abu Tig, with 14,276 inhabitants. The name appears to mean "granary"; and 14 miles beyond, 279 miles from Cairo, is Kâu al-Kabîr (the TKWO of the Copts), on the east bank, which marks the site of Antaeopolis, the capital of the Antaeopolite nome in Upper Egypt. The temple which formerly existed here was dedicated to Antaeus, the Libyan wrestler, who fought with Hercules; he was the son of Poseidon and Ge, and was invincible as long as he remained in contact with his mother earth. The temple was built by Ptolemy Philometor and was repaired by Marcus Aurelius, and its ruins were finally submerged by the disastrous Nile-flood of 1821. In the plain close by it is said by Diodorus that the battle between Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, and Set or Typhon, the murderer of Osiris, took place; Typhon was overcome, and fled away in the form of a crocodile. In Christian times Antaeopolis was the seat of a bishop.

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Tahṭah, with 20,658 inhabitants, 2911 miles from Cairo, contains some interesting mosques, and is the home of a large number of Copts, in consequence of which, probably, the town is kept clean. Sûhâk, with 20,760 inhabitants, 317 miles from Cairo, is the capital of the province of Girgâ; near it are the White and Red Monasteries. Dêr al-Abyad or "White Monastery," so called because of the colour of the stone of which it is built, but better known by the name of Amba Shenûdah, is situated the west bank of the river near Sûhâk, 317 miles from Cairo. The convent was built by the Empress Helena, in the ancient Egyptian style. The walls slope inwards towards the summit, where they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The building is of an oblong shape, about 200 feet in length by 90 feet wide, very well built of fine blocks of stone; it has no windows outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a great height from the ground. Of these there are 20 on the south side and nine at the east end. The monastery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain.

There were formerly six gates; the single entrance now remaining is called the "mule gate," because when a certain heathen princess came riding on a mule to desecrate the church, the earth opened and swallowed her up. The walls enclose a space measuring about 240 feet by 133 feet. The convent was dedicated to Shenûti, who was born A.D. 333; he died at midday on July 2nd, A.D. 451! The library once contained over a hundred parchment books, but these were destroyed by the Mamlûks when they last sacked the convent. In this monastery the bodies of St. Bartholomew and Simon the Canaanite are said to be buried, but the body of its founder was laid in the monastery which stood on the Mountain of Athribis, a name derived from the Egyptian Ḥet-erpiti.

The Dêr al-Ahmar or "Red Monastery," so called because of the red colour of the bricks of which it is built, was also built by the Empress Helena; it is smaller and better preserved than the White Monastery, and was dedicated to the Abba Bêsa, the disciple and friend of Shenûti. The pillars of both churches were taken from Athribis, which lay close by; the orientation of neither church is exact, for their axes point between north-east and north-east by east. The ruined church of Armant near Thebes is built on the same model. All lovers of Coptic buildings will be grateful to Lord Cromer for the promptitude which he showed in connection with the repairing of these monasteries, which contain the two most important churches in Egypt. Mr. Somers Clarke called attention to the ruined state of the monasteries, and very soon after Herz Bey, Architect to the Comité de Conservation, took steps to preserve the buildings and to clear out the squalid houses which had been built up within the walls. The Egyptian Government granted £E.4,000 for the work of restoration, and to this sum the Coptic Patriarch added E.1,000.

A few miles south of Sûhâk, on the east bank of the river, lies the town of Akhmîm, with 26,023 inhabitants, called Panopolis by the Greeks; Strabo and Leo Africanus say that it was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt. The ithyphallic god Menu, identified by the Greeks with Pan, was worshipped here, and the town was famous for its linen weavers and stone cutters. Its Egyptian name was Åpu. Of this city Herodotus (ii, 91) says: "There is a large city called "Chemmis (ie., Panopolis), situate in the Thebaic district, "near Neapolis, in which is a quadrangular temple dedicated

"to Perseus the son of Danaë; palm-trees grow round it, and "the portico is of stone, very spacious, and over it are placed two large stone statues. In this enclosure is a temple, and

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in it is placed a statue of Perseus. The Chemmitae affirm "that Perseus has frequently appeared to them on earth, and frequently within the temple, and that a sandal worn by him "is sometimes found, which is two cubits in length; and that "after its appearance, all Egypt flourishes. They adopt the following Grecian customs in honour of Perseus: they cele"brate gymnastic games, embracing every kind of contest; and they give as prizes, cattle, cloaks, and skins. When I enquired why Perseus appeared only to them, and why they "differed from the rest of the Egyptians in holding gymnastic games, they answered, 'Perseus derived his origin from their city; for that Danaus and Lynceus, who were both natives "" of Chemmis, sailed from there into Greece'; and tracing the "descent down from them, they came to Perseus; and that "he coming to Egypt, for the same reason as the Greeks allege, in order to bring away the Gorgon's head from Libya, they affirmed that he came to them also and acknowledged "all his kindred; and that when he came to Egypt he was "well acquainted with the name of Chemmis, having heard it "from his mother; they add, that by his order they instituted "gymnastic games in honour of him." Akhmîm is still famous for its linen weavers, who seem to have inherited the skill of their predecessors in making many-coloured woven fabrics. The city is also famous as the birthplace of Nonnus, the poet, A.D. 410, and as the burial place of Nestorius, A.D. 450. This wretched man was banished first to Petra, in Arabia, and then to the Oasis of Khârgah in 435; he was seized by the Blemmyes and carried off, but eventually found his way to Panopolis. He was again banished and tortured by sufferings and privations, and at length died of a disease in the course of which his tongue was eaten by worms; his religious opponent's declared that rain never fell on his tomb. former days Akhmîm had a large population of Copts, and large Coptic monasteries stood close by. The Necropolis of Akhmîm was discovered by M. Maspero in 1882-3.

In

Al-Manshâh, or Al-Manshîyah, on the west bank of the river, with 21,652 inhabitants, 328 miles from Cairo, stands on the site of a city which is said to have been the capital of the Panopolite nome; its Coptic name was Psôi. In the time of Shenûti the Blemmyes, a nomad warlike Ethiopian tribe,

invaded Upper Egypt, and having acquired much booty, they returned to Psôi or Al-Manshâh, and settled down there. Close to the village of Al-Aḥâiwah, which is almost opposite to Al-Manshîyah on the west bank, are the remains of cemeteries of the Predynastic Period. In the quarries of Gabal Tukh close by are many inscriptions in Greek and Demotic of the Græco-Roman Period. Girgâ, with 21,652 inhabitants, on the west bank of the river, 341 miles from Cairo, has a large Christian population, and is said to occupy the site of the ancient This, whence sprang the first dynasty of historical Egyptian kings. But it is far more probable that the site of This is marked by the modern village of Al-Birbâ (with 3,309 inhabitants), about half-an-hour's ride from Girgâ. A Tomb of Tcheser, a king of the IIIrd dynasty (excavated by Prof. Garstang in 1901), lies a few miles to the west of Girgâ.

During the years 1901-3 the Hearst Egyptian Expedition carried out the excavation of a series of cemeteries situated at Naga' ‘ad-Dêr, nearly opposite Girgâ. Dr. Reisner found near the promontory on which stands the ruined tomb of Shekh Farak three ravines, which served as burial places for the Egyptians from the Predynastic Period to a very late date. As the result of his investigations of these he has formulated the following theories: That from the predynastic times to those of the third and following dynasties the burial customs of the Egyptians remained unchanged. On the other hand the differences between the things placed in the graves, and in the construction of the tombs, are very great. The tombs of the early dynasties contain the products of technical skill, i.e., bored and engraved stones, which are never found in graves of the early Predynastic Period. On the other hand, chipped or worked flints, hand-made pottery, plaited reed work, etc., similar to those found in predynastic graves, still occur. The differences between the people of the predynastic graves and those of the early dynasties depend on two mechanical inventions, viz., stone boring and writing, and on the spread of a third invention, copper working. "It is, I believe, impossible to escape the conclusion that the inhabitants of Egypt from "the earliest Predynastic Period down to the end of Protodynastic Period, form one continuous race and that we are here "witnesses of the steps by which they conquered the stubborn "materials of the earth and earned that civilization which we "call Egyptian." And again: "The invention of copper working 'is Egyptian; the invention of the stone borer is Egyptian; and