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

208

CITIES OF EGYPT.

high, the shaft being a single block of red granite. In the
environs may be seen the remains of an interesting monu-
ment, the temple of Queen Arsinoe as Aphrodite on the
promontory of Zephyrium, near Ramleh, ' the Sandy,' a
favourite resort of the Alexandrian merchants of our day.
The position is very striking, on a high cliff looking over
the sea towards Cyprus, the island of the goddess here
worshipped. In the quiet of the ruin, where the silence
of the desert coast is only broken by the murmur of the
waves on the sandy shore below, memory recalls the tale
which gives this temple a place in history. When Euer-
getes went away on his great expedition into the far east,
Queen Berenice here vowed if her husband returned in
safety, to dedicate her beautiful hair to the sea-born
goddess to whom the sailors prayed. The vow was
kept, and the long golden tresses hung up within the'
temple. Some daring thief, who feared neither goddess
nor king, carried off the costly offering. Ptolemy,
enraged by the loss, sought in vain, until Conon, the
state astronomer, discovered Berenice's hair, not at
Alexandria, but in the sky, as a string of stars. The
stars had been there of old, and were only separated as
a new constellation by depriving the Lion of his tail;