ON THE POSITION OF SUSA. Among the many illustrations history affords of the in- stability of human greatness, one not the least remarkable is that the site of the " Memnonian city*" should have become a subject of controversy. Many of our readers are probably acquainted with the difference of opinions that has arisen on this question, who do not know that it has been at length, if not completely decided, at least brought so near to that point, as scarcely to admit of any farther doubt. This is one of the services rendered to Oriental geography by the ce- lebrated Orientalist, Joseph von Hammer. But the discovery by which he threw a new light on the subject was first pub- lished in a German review, which I believe has but a very narrow circulation in this countrv, the Vienna Jahrbucher der Literatur^ Vol. viii, and there is reason to believe that few even of the persons who take an interest in eastern geography are yet informed of it. At least in a popular work, the author of which has paid more than ordinary attention to eastern geography, the opinion which v. Hammer has refuted, or at least shaken to its foundation, is adopted and stated in a manner which clearly implies that the writer was not aware of the strongest arguments that have been brought against it. In the life of Alexander the Great in Mr Murray's Cabinet Library, p. }6S^ 169, Susa is described as situate on the Choaspes^ the modern Kerah^ and as corresponding to Shus^ ^^ where a small temple still commemorates the burial place of Daniel. The proposition which v. Hammer maintains is that the Kerah is not the Choaspes^ nor S/itis^ Susa^ but that the modern Schuster or Tostar occupies the site of the ancient city of Memnon, and that the Choaspes is the modern Karoon. A glance at a good map of Asia will shew that the distance between the two places is so considerable as to render the Vol. II. No. 4. A a
