418 PLINX'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book Y, Dogs and that of Hercules already mentioned^. "We next come to Arsinoe^, and Memphis'*, which has been previously mentioned ; between which last and the Nome df Arsino- 'ites, upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids, the Labyrinth^ on Lake Moeris, in the construc- tion of which no wood was employed, and the town of Crialon^. Besides these, there is one place in the interior, on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of the Sun^. Mount Alabasternus, now Mount St. Anthony, and the hill of Alabas- tritcs, now the Coteau Hessan. ^ Or CynopoUs, the cliief place of the CynopoHte nome. The Dog- headed deity Aiiubis was worshipped here. The modern Samallus occu- pies its site. This place was in the Heptanomis, but there were several other towns of the same name, one of which was situate m the Delta or Lower Egypt. 2 In C. 9, when speaking of the nome of Heracleopohtes ; of which nome, tliis place, called Heracleopohs, was the capital. It was situate at the entrance of the valley of tlie Fayoum, on an island formed by the Nile and a canal. After Memphis and Hehopohs it was probably the most important city north of the Thebaid. It furnished two dynasties of kings to Egypt. The ichneumon was worshipped here, from which it may be inferred that the people were hostile to the crocodile. Its ruius are inconsiderable ; the village of Anasieh covers part of them. 3 The capital of the nome of Arsinoites, seated on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and Lake Moeris, south-west of Mempliis, m lat. 29° north. It was called under the Pharaohs, " the City of Croco- diles," from the reverence paid by the people to that animal. Its ruins are to be seen at Medinet-el-Fayoom or El-Fares.
- Its magnificent ruins, known by the name of Menf and Metrabenny,
are to be seen about ten miles above the pyramids of Gizeli. 5 This lay beyond Lake Moeris, or Birket-el-Keroun, at a short distance from the city of Arsmoe. It had 3000 apartments, 1500 of which were imderground. The accounts given by modern travellers of its supposed ruins do not agree with what we have learned from the ancients respect- ing its arcliitectm'e and site. The purposes for which it was built are unknown. Its supposed site is called Havara. ^ If this is not au abbreviation or corruption for Crocodilon, as Har- douin suggests, it may probably mean the " town of Kams," from the worship perhaps of that animal there. 7 Ileliopohs or Eameses. In Scripture it is called by the names of On and No — Gen. xU. 45 and Ezek. xxx. 15. It stood on the eastern side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, near the right bank of the Great Canal which connected the river with the Red Sea, and close adjoining to the present overland route for travellers to India. It was one of the most ancient of the Egyptian cities j here the father-ia-law of
