DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0126
1J0
the transgressors of moral order, or of the benign influence of
religion in taming the natural ferocity of man.
A few miles below Esne we visited the modern town of Asphoun,
built on the site and amid the ruins of the antient Asphinis,
which D'Anville confounds with Aphroditopolis, I know not on
what grounds: we found very considerable marks of buildings
of earlier times, but only a few small granite columns to prove
that it ever had to boast of any public buildings of eminence ;
and these were of the lower ages of the Greek empire : we could
not learn that there were any Egyptian ruins, though it is proba-
ble they would be found on a stricter search. "We were prevented
examining too minutely, by the whole town having taken up
arms on our approach, under the idea that we were French :
and as we were totally defenceless in the midst of an armed
multitude, (this town being two miles distant from the river had
preserved its independence,) we were obliged to content ourselves
with an unhostile reception, and with the answers the inhabitants
gave to our interrogatories.
The cultivable country around Asphoun and all the way from
Esne is very wide, and well able to have contained three or more
large towns within the districts of Latopolis, Aphroditopolis,
Asphinis and Crocodilopolis : of this last we found extensive re-
mains a few miles lower down on the left bank, close to the river,
and on the slope of the Easternmost of the two mountains
which are called Giblein. These arc two high hills of sand and
rock to the West of the River divided by a plain half a mile
broad, along which runs the dry bed of a canal. This canal
had once insulated the hill to the East, and carried fertility and
abundance over a wide extent of desert. The ruins now visi-
ble arc raised to a great height over others of an earlier date:
there are no traces of Temples, but there are several Catacombs
and
the transgressors of moral order, or of the benign influence of
religion in taming the natural ferocity of man.
A few miles below Esne we visited the modern town of Asphoun,
built on the site and amid the ruins of the antient Asphinis,
which D'Anville confounds with Aphroditopolis, I know not on
what grounds: we found very considerable marks of buildings
of earlier times, but only a few small granite columns to prove
that it ever had to boast of any public buildings of eminence ;
and these were of the lower ages of the Greek empire : we could
not learn that there were any Egyptian ruins, though it is proba-
ble they would be found on a stricter search. "We were prevented
examining too minutely, by the whole town having taken up
arms on our approach, under the idea that we were French :
and as we were totally defenceless in the midst of an armed
multitude, (this town being two miles distant from the river had
preserved its independence,) we were obliged to content ourselves
with an unhostile reception, and with the answers the inhabitants
gave to our interrogatories.
The cultivable country around Asphoun and all the way from
Esne is very wide, and well able to have contained three or more
large towns within the districts of Latopolis, Aphroditopolis,
Asphinis and Crocodilopolis : of this last we found extensive re-
mains a few miles lower down on the left bank, close to the river,
and on the slope of the Easternmost of the two mountains
which are called Giblein. These arc two high hills of sand and
rock to the West of the River divided by a plain half a mile
broad, along which runs the dry bed of a canal. This canal
had once insulated the hill to the East, and carried fertility and
abundance over a wide extent of desert. The ruins now visi-
ble arc raised to a great height over others of an earlier date:
there are no traces of Temples, but there are several Catacombs
and