Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

CITIES OF EGYPT.

CHAPTER V.
ZOAN.

As we look at a country and try to connect the forms of
nature and the homes of men with the events of history,
we find that by degrees our eyes are attracted to the
points of special interest. These are usually the central
stronghold, sometimes one town, sometimes another,
always in the heart of the land, and the border that
could easily be assailed. The one has a history telling
how the nation grew, the other has lays recording how
it resisted the invader. The border has the more stirring
annals, falling of their own accord into the shape of
verse, save at those moments when this first line of
defence has been overleapt and the struggle for existence
fought under the ramparts of the capital, themselves
now the border of the land. Thus Paris, in the Norman
sieges, became far more interesting than Chalons or
Roncesvalles ; the Monastery of the Troitza, in the