DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6638#0025
PHACUSA, GOSHEX, RAMSES.
15
}n ^y3 p ^ the capital of the nome of Arabia.
Thus we may boldly assert that Saft el Henneh
is the site of the capital of the twentieth nome
of Lower Egypt. Considering what the Greek
authors say of the nome of Arabia, this is
very important.
The geographer Ptolemy1 says that on the
east of the Bubastite branch, between the Bu-
bastite and Sethroite nomes, is the nome of
Arabia with its metropolis Phacusa. We thus
learn the Greek name for the capital of the
nome. Phacusa is also mentioned by Stephanus
Byzantinus, who says that it is a kw/a^ between
Egypt and the Red Sea. The same name
occurs as Phaguse in the " Geographer of
Eavenna " and in the map of Peutinger. It was
also one of the episcopal sees of Egypt. The
most important statement about Phacusa is
found in Strabo,2 who says that the canal
which runs from the Nile to the Red Sea
branches off from the river at Phacusa. Most
modern authors (Le Pere, Champollion, Ebers,
Brugsch), struck by the great likeness between
the name of Phacusa and that of the present
village of Fakoos, have supposed that Phacusa
was to be looked for on the site of the village.
In that case, the statement of Strabo would
be erroneous. No canal ever started from
Fakoos towards the Red Sea; there are no
traces of any such canal in the desert, the level
of which would also have presented an insu-
perable obstacle to a work of the kind. We
were, therefore, obliged to admit that the Greek
geographer was in error. He had placed the
starting-point of the canal about fifteen miles
distant from the place where it left the Nile,
and we were quite unable to account for this
misstatement. But we now see clearly that
there is none. Strabo is absolutely correct; he
1 1. iv. 5, 53. See the remarkable chapter of Mr.
Flinders Petrie (Naucrati?, p. 91), " On the Geographia of
Ptolemy," which entirely coufirms the site here assigned to
Phacusa.
5 p. 805.
mentioned a place in the valley where the canal
had always been since the time of Rameses II.,
and where it now runs at this present time.
His statement corresponds very closely with
that of Herodotos, who says that the canal
leaves the Nile a little above Bubastis (Tell
Basta, Zagazig). The canal very probably
crossed several branches of the great river, as
it does now ; and while Herodotos mentions
the western or Bubastite branch as the head of
this canal, so Strabo makes it start from a
more eastward source, deriving its waters from
the Pelusiac branch; however, the two state-
ments refer clearly to the same canal following
the same direction.
The inscriptions engraved upon the shrine
15
}n ^y3 p ^ the capital of the nome of Arabia.
Thus we may boldly assert that Saft el Henneh
is the site of the capital of the twentieth nome
of Lower Egypt. Considering what the Greek
authors say of the nome of Arabia, this is
very important.
The geographer Ptolemy1 says that on the
east of the Bubastite branch, between the Bu-
bastite and Sethroite nomes, is the nome of
Arabia with its metropolis Phacusa. We thus
learn the Greek name for the capital of the
nome. Phacusa is also mentioned by Stephanus
Byzantinus, who says that it is a kw/a^ between
Egypt and the Red Sea. The same name
occurs as Phaguse in the " Geographer of
Eavenna " and in the map of Peutinger. It was
also one of the episcopal sees of Egypt. The
most important statement about Phacusa is
found in Strabo,2 who says that the canal
which runs from the Nile to the Red Sea
branches off from the river at Phacusa. Most
modern authors (Le Pere, Champollion, Ebers,
Brugsch), struck by the great likeness between
the name of Phacusa and that of the present
village of Fakoos, have supposed that Phacusa
was to be looked for on the site of the village.
In that case, the statement of Strabo would
be erroneous. No canal ever started from
Fakoos towards the Red Sea; there are no
traces of any such canal in the desert, the level
of which would also have presented an insu-
perable obstacle to a work of the kind. We
were, therefore, obliged to admit that the Greek
geographer was in error. He had placed the
starting-point of the canal about fifteen miles
distant from the place where it left the Nile,
and we were quite unable to account for this
misstatement. But we now see clearly that
there is none. Strabo is absolutely correct; he
1 1. iv. 5, 53. See the remarkable chapter of Mr.
Flinders Petrie (Naucrati?, p. 91), " On the Geographia of
Ptolemy," which entirely coufirms the site here assigned to
Phacusa.
5 p. 805.
mentioned a place in the valley where the canal
had always been since the time of Rameses II.,
and where it now runs at this present time.
His statement corresponds very closely with
that of Herodotos, who says that the canal
leaves the Nile a little above Bubastis (Tell
Basta, Zagazig). The canal very probably
crossed several branches of the great river, as
it does now ; and while Herodotos mentions
the western or Bubastite branch as the head of
this canal, so Strabo makes it start from a
more eastward source, deriving its waters from
the Pelusiac branch; however, the two state-
ments refer clearly to the same canal following
the same direction.
The inscriptions engraved upon the shrine