Naville, Edouard: The store-city of Pithom and the route of the Exodus (London, 1888)

APPENDIX I.

39

simpler and safer way of getting to the truth;
it is to compare two distances given by Herodo-
tus, one of which we know exactly. Herodotus
says (ii. 158) that from Mount Oasius, which
is the limit of Egypt and Syria, to the Arabian
Gulf there are 1000 stadia, that is, two-thirds
of the distance from Heliopolis to the sea,
which he says to be 1500 stadia (ii. 7).
Measuring from Heliopolis to the sea along the
Tanitic branch or even the Pelusiac, we find
about 160 kilometres, the length of the present

Suez Canal, the two-thirds of which would be
little above 100. If now we measure from Ras
el Kasrun, the old Casius mons, 100 kilometres,
it will lead us exactly either to Ero, or more
east to the south of Lake Timsah, near the
Bitter Lakes. The agreement with Ptolemy
the geographer is complete, and we can con-
clude that at the time of Herodotus the sea
had very likely already receded, but it reached
still at least to the north end of the Bitter
Lakes.