The country from Egypt to the Atlantic, now called the coaft of Barbary, for the fpace of near 2000 miles, borders all the way on a barren defert, called Zaara or Sahara, which fometimes

duces two, three, and fometimes four different crops. Vegetation is fo ftrong, that fome plants, in twenty-four hours, fend out fhoots near four inches long. But all foreign plants degenerate in this foil very rapidly; hence thofe who culti vate them are obliged to renew the feed every year.-It should feem, that the climate of Egypt is as unfavourable to the perpetuation of any foreign fpecies of animals, as to the propagation of exotic plants. It is a remarkable fact, that though there have been Mamlouks in Egypt now for 550 years, yet not one of them has left fubfifting iffue; there does not exift one fingle family of them in the fecond generation; all their children perish in the first or second descent. Almost the fame thing happens to the Turks; and it is observed, that they can only fecure the continuance of their families, by marrying women who are natives, which the Mamlouks have always difdained, conftantly con. necting themselves with female flaves from their own countries, from Circaflia, Georgia, Mingrelia, &c.

Certain winds blow in Egypt at certain feafons. In the fpring, the north and north-east winds carry a prodigious quantity of clouds from the Me. diterranean into Abyffinia. They are feen in Egypt afcending towards the fouth, and fometimes feem to threaten rain. But it never rains in the Delta in fummer; and but rarely, and in fmall quantities, during the whole course of the year. It rains still lefs in Upper Egypt, as is the cafe in Sindy, See p. 649. Dews, however, fall when the north or weft winds blow, and, like the rains, are more or lefs copious, as places are more or lefs diftant from the fea, but differ from the rains in being more abundant in fummer than in winter. A wind fometimes blows from the fouth-fouth-weft, fo intolerably hot, that it frequently proves fatal to fuch as are expofed to it. Thefe are called Winds of fifty days, because they prevail moft frequently in the fifty days preceding and following the equinox; or Hot winds of the defert, because they blow over the deferts of Lybia, See p. 649.-The Egyptians, either from the nature of their climate, or the qualities of their food, are very liable to a defect or total want of fight. The fmallpox too, either from an improper regimen, or the neglect of inoculation, makes dreadful ravages among them.

The people of Egypt are kept in the groffeft ignorance, which prevents all kinds of improvement. The language universally spoken is the Arabic. There is the fame infecurity of property as in Syria; and confequently agriculture and the arts are equally neglected.

The monuments of antiquity in Egypt are numerous and fplendid, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Alexandria and Cairo. Alexandria now fcarcely contains 6000 inhabitants. It is a fmall town, built on the fpot which was formerly the old harbour, left uncovered by the retreating of the fea. The mole which joined the continent to the ifle of Pharos is enlarged, and is now become a part of the main land. The lake Marea or Mareōtis, which bathed the walls of the ancient city on the fouth, does not now exift, its place being occupied by the fands of Lybia. Alexandria is now fupplied with water by a canal from the Nile, called the Canal of Faoüe, or Kalidj, the Canal of twelve leagues, which is only filled at the time of the inundation; and from the cisterns or refervoirs built under the ancient city, which are then filled, the Alexandrians are fup. plied with water till the return of the inundation next year.

The most remarkable antiquities near Alexandria are two obelisks commonly called Cleopatra's Needles, of Thebaic ftone, and covered with hieroglyphics; the one of them overturned, broken, and lying under the fand, the other on its pedestal; each of them of a fingle tone, about 66 feet, high, by feven foot

4 Q. 2

fquare

times approaches within a few miles of the Mediterranean. In Marmarica ftood the temple of Jupiter-Ammon, in the middle of a sandy defert.

CYRENAICA

fquare at the bafe. But what most engages the attention of travellers, is the pillar of red granite, commonly called Pompey's pillar, although, as it is thought, it fhould rather be called the Pillar of Severus. The capital is Corin. thian with palm leaves, and not indented; about nine feet high: the shaft and the upper member of the bafe are of one piece of ninety feet long, and nine in diameter: the bafe is a fquare of about fifteen feet on each side. This block of marble 60 feet in circumference, rests on two layers of stone, bound together with lead. The whole column is 114 feet high. The wonderful tower of Pharos, 400 feet high, was destroyed by the Turks, who built in its room a fquare caftle, without tafte or ornament.At a mile and a half fouth of the town, in the place of the ancient fuburb Necropolis, or the City of the dead, is the defcent to the catacombs, where the dead bodies were depofited.

The road from Alexandria to Rofetta is through a barren defert, producing nothing but Kali or Glass-wart, the herb that yields Barilla, fee p. 105. The fituation of Rofetta is delightful, furrounded with fine gardens and plantations of trees, lemon and orange-trees, date-trees, palm-trees, fycamores, &c. It was built in the eighth century, at the mouth of the Nile, but is now fix miles from the fea. In failing up the Nile, from Rofetta to Grand Cairo, the prospect offers little variety; nothing is to be feen but palm trees, fingle, or in clumps, which become more rare as you advance; wretched villages, compofed of mud-walled huts, built on artificial mounds; a boundlefs plain, which, at different seasons, is an ocean of fresh water, a verdant field, or a dufty defert; and on every fide, an extenfive and foggy horizon, where the eye is wearied or difgufted: at length, toward the junction of the two branches of the river, the mountains of Grand Cairo are difcovered in the east, and to the fouth-weft, three detached maffes appear, which, from their triangular form, are known to be the Pyramids.

Cairo ftands on the eastern bank of the Nile, at the diftance of near a mile from the river; but there is a canal from it, that comes up to the city. Cairo is of great extent, about nine miles in circumference; but as in moft Turkish cities, the houfes are ill built; the ftreets, narrow, winding, and unpaved, Contrary to the general custom of the east, the houses have two or three stories, over which is a terrace of ftone or tiles; in general, they are of earth and bricks, badly burnt; the reft are of foft ftone, procured from the neighbouring mount Mokattam. All these houfes have the air of prifons, for they have no light from the street; as it is extremely dangerous to have many windows in fuch a country. They even take the precaution to make the entering door very low. The light enters from the inner courts, whence the fycamores reflect a verdure pleating to the eye. An opening to the north, or at the top of the ceiling, admits a refreshing breeze. Some make the population of Cairo amount to 700,000, but others, not to the half of that number. All calculations however of the number of inhabitants in Turkey are arbitrary, as no registers are kept of births, deaths, or marriages. The Mahometans have even fuperftitious prejudices against numbering their people. A ftranger, on his arrival at Cairo, is ftruck with the ragged and wretched appearance of the inhabitants. The Mamluks, it is true, are fplendidly dreffed, and always ap pear on horfeback; but this display of luxury only renders the contrast of indigence the more fhocking. In Egypt, none but the Mamlouks are permitted to ride on horfeback. Common people and foreigners always walk, or are carried by mules or affes. Foreigners of distinction, however, sometimes procure a licence to ride on horseback.

оп

The

CYRENAICA extended from Catabathmos (a remarkable declivity, which Salluft and feveral of the ancients make the eaftern boundary of Africa) to the Syrtis Major, or the Ara Philenon, the altars of the two brothers. A diftrict of this country was called Pentapolis, from its five cities; Cyrene, eleven miles from the fea, founded by a colony of Greeks from the island Thera, the birth-place of Carneades, the Academician, Strab. xvii. p. 838.; Apollonia, the fea port of Cyrene; Ptolemais, anciently Barce, the people Barcai; Arfince; and Berenice, anciently Hefperis, near which was the famous garden of the Hefperides.

Leptis, Oea, and Sabrata, were the chief cities in the REGIO SYRTICA.

This country was bounded on the east by the river Cinyps or Cinyphus, which runs into the Syrtis Major, where dwelt the Lotophagi, fo called from their living on the lotus, a food fo lufcious as, according to Homer, to make ftrangers forget their country; and on the weft by the river Triton, which runs into the Syrtis Minor, and in its courfe forms feveral lakes; among the rest Tritonis, whence Minerva was called Tritonia, because fhe was fuppofed to have been born there.

The three principal pyramids are feen from Cairo. They ftand upon a ledge of rock, forty or fifty feet above the level of the plain, twelve miles from Cairo and about four miles from the west bank of the Nile. Ancient authors differ greatly concerning their height. Herodotus makes the height of the largeft pyramid, eight plethra, or 800 feet, ii. 124. Strabo makes it a fadium, or 625 feet, xvii. 811. Diodorus, more than fix plctbra, or 600 feet, i. 63, and Pliny, 783 feet, xxxvi. 12. f. 17. There is the fame difference in the accounts of the moderns. It is remarkable, that fe curious a fact fhould not be afcertained. Three hundred and fixty thousand men are faid to have been employed for twenty years in building the largest pyramid, Plin, ib. Herodotus fays, that 100,000 men were always engaged in the work, and changed every three months, Ib. The fum expended to purchase onions, leeks, &c. for the workmen, amounted to 1600 talents; whence we may conjecture the whole expence, Herodot. & Plin. ibid. Pliny juftly calls thefe works, Regum pecuniæ otiofa ac fulta ofientatio; and adds, that by a most deserved fate, the very names of those who reared fuch vain monuments are funk in oblivion, I.

Near one of the pyramids, is the enormous SPHINX, now almost funk in the fand, fo that the top of its back only is visible; its head rifes about 27 feet above the fand. Its chin measures ten feet fix inches in height; and the whole length of the countenance nearly eighteen feet, Niebuhr. Pliny makes the circumference of its head, 102 feet, the length of its feet, 143 feet, and the height from the belly to the crown of the head, 62 feet, all of one ftone, ib. f. 17.-There were anciently a great number of pyramids and fphynxes in different parts of Egypt, befides thefe near Memphis, Strab. xvii. 857. fome of which are ftill to be feen.

There are remains of the ruins of Thebes, and also of feveral other ancient cities of Egypt, but the defcriptions of them in general are uninterefting.

The

The capital of AFRICA PROPRIA was CARTHAGO, Carthage, built by a colony of Tyrians under the famous DIDO; the citadel, which ftood in the middle of the city, was called Byrfa. Carthage was deftroyed by Scipio, rebuilt by Augustus, and finally deftroyed by the Saracens in the feventh century. About

*DIDO, called alfo Eliza, upon her arrival in Africa, is faid to have purcha fed from the inhabitants of that country as much ground as fhe could furround with a bull's hide, Liv. xxxiv. 61. Virg. Æn. 1. 367. Appian, De Bell. Punic. I. (Juftin fays, as much as an ox's hide could cover, xviii. 5.) and to have cut the hide into very fmall thongs, by which means fhe included a much larger fpace than the inhabitants imagined; whence the place first built on, i. e. the citadel, got the name of BYRSA, (from ßupoa, corium vel pellis, a hide.) Ib. Carthage is faid to have been built 65 years before Rome, Vell. i. 6. Appian fays, 50 years before the taking of Troy by the Greeks, De Punic 1. About this, as about other ancient facts, authors vary.

Juftin relates, that Dido, being fought in marriage by JARBAS, a neighbouring prince, with a denunciation of war if the refufed, was urged by her fubjects to comply. Having therefore erected a funeral pile in the extre mity of the city, as if about to perform certain facred rites before her mar riage, to appcafe the manes of Sichæus or Acerbas, her former hutband; the afcended the pile with a fword in her hand, and looking to the people, who were standing around, fhe faid, that he would go to her husband, as they had required; and instantly flew herself with the fword. She was worshipped as a goddefs as long as Carthage ftood, fufin. xviii. 6. Serv. in Virg. Æn. I. 344.

Carthage flood on a kind of peninfula, which is 360 fadia or 45 miles in circumference. The neck of the peninfula extending 60 ftadia, was fortified by a wall. (Strab. xvii. 832. Polybius makes its extent only 25 ftadia, i. 73. So Appian. 56.) Here were the ftails of the elephants. Below the citadel Jay the harbours; and a fmall ifland, called COTHON, encompassed with an Euripus or canal, having docks on each fide of it all round.

Carthage, when its power was at the higheft, poffeffed the whole coaft of Africa, from Cyrenaica and the deferts of Lybia to the ftraits of Gibraltar, a great part of Spain and Sicily, alto Sardinia, and fome other small islands. We may judge of the opulence of Carthage from its efforts against the Ro mans, and in particular from its flate, when that people determined to destroy it, at the inftigation of CATO the Cenfor, who ufed always to conclude his fpeeches in the Senate thus, ET HOC AMPLIUS CENSEO, CARTHAGO EST DELENDA. Scipio Nafica, on the contrary, thought more wifely, that Carthage fhould be fpared, that from the terror of it, the Romans might be kept from fiuking into luxury and vice, Appian, De Panic. 38. Carthage, notwithftanding all its loffes, then contained 700,000 inhabitants, and poffeffd 300 cities in Africa. The Romans having formed the bafe refolution of destroying this city, without having received at that time any juft caufe of offence, acted with the deepest art. They first demanded, as a mark of fubmiffion, 300 of the chil dren of the chief men as hoflages. Thefe being delivered, they next demanded, that the Carthaginians fhould give up all their arms and warlike machines. This alfo was complied with. The fuits of armour given up amounted to 200,000, and the catapulte, &c. to 3,000. The Romans then demanded that the Carthaginians fhould leave their prefent city, and build a new one in any part of their territories they pleafed, provided it was not within 80 ftadia or ten miles of the fea. When the Carthaginians, after making all thefe facrifices, perceived that the deftruction of their city was refolved on, and that they must either leave their habitations, according to the cruel command

of

About 15 miles east of Carthage ftood Tunes, or -ēta, Tunis, at the mouth of the river Catada, near which Regulus was defeated and taken prifoner by the Carthaginians, under Xantippus

of their unjuft aggreffors, or prepare for a defperate refiftance; having with joint confent determined rather to perifh than tamely fubmit to fuch indignity, they fhut their gates against the Romans, and took the most vigorous measures for their defence. They fabricated every day 140 fhields, 300 fwords 500 lances, and 1000 darts to be thrown from warlike machines, for making the ropes of which the women cut out their own hair, Strab. ib. Appian. 55. Although they had for fifty years been limited by treaty to build no more than 12 fhips, and the mouth of Cotton was blocked up; yet in two months they conftructed 120 fail, and having dug a new communication with the fea from Cothon, they fuddenly sent out this fleet, to the aftonishment of the Romans.

The fiege began in the confulfhip of L. Marcius Cenforinus and M. Manlius, a. U. 604, and lafted three years. The courage and exertions of the Carthaginians almost exceed belief. They chofe HASDRUBAL for their general, who tarnished the glory of his military exploits by his cruelty. The Romans fuftained many fevere defeats; and their army would have been utterly destroyed, had it not been preferved by the prudence of SCIPIO, grandfon, by adoption, to Scipio, the conqueror of Hannibal, who then ferved in a fubordinate rank.

Scipio having gone to Rome to stand candidate for the Edilefhip, was, from an admiration of his virtue, created conful by the people, although below the legal age, and appointed to command the army in Africa. After many violent conflicts, and much effufion of blood, Scipio at lalt took and destroyed Carthage, after it had food 700 years. Afdrubal with 40,000 men furrendered themselves, on condition of having their lives fpared. But the wife of Afdrubal, who had fled with the deferters to the temple of Afculapius, which stood on the top of the citadel, fcorning to furvive the ruin of her country, having uttered the bittereft imprecations against her husband, who was ftanding with Scipio, within hearing, threw herfelf with two children from the top of the houfe into the middle of the flames, in imitation, fays Florus, of that queen who built Carthage, ii. 15.

Scipio fecing the deftruction of fo great a city, is faid to have fhed tears. Reflecting on the fate of Troy, of the Affyrians, Medes and Perfians, and on the recent overthrow of the Macedonians, he repeated two verfes of Homer, in which the fall of Ilium and Priam is predicted, I. iv. 164. Being afked by Polybius his preceptor, who happened to be then prefent, what he meant by them, he faid, that confidering the viciffitude of human affairs, he was afraid left the fame misfortune fhould befal his own country, Appian. ib. 84. as it actually did, fee p. 219. Perhaps he perceived that the ruin of Carthage would accelerate that of Rome. He little thought, that, in about 100 years after, divine vengeance would make the grandfons of the victors, and among the reft one of his own defcendants, fall by the hands of their own countrymen, as viaims to appease the manes of the flaughtered Africans, Horat. od. ii. I. 25.; and that the great-grandfon of the chief author of the deftruction of Carthage, the most virtuous of the Romans, (Cato), fhould be obliged to kill himfelf, to prevent his talling into the hands of the oppreffor of the liberties of his country, (Cæfar), fee p. 242.

The Government of Carthage, during the lifetime of Dido, is fuppofed to have been monarchical; but afterwards it was partly aristocratical, and partly democratical. Ariftotle prefers the conftitution of Carthage to that of Lacedæ mon and Crete, De Rep. ii. 11. Two chief magiftrates were annually created from among the nobility, called SUFFETES, poffeffing nearly the fame power as the Confuls at Rome, Nep. in Hannibal. 7. Liv. xxx. 7. xxviii. 37. called alfo REGES,