DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4640#0065
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Formerly Lycopolis — a name derived from the worship of the jackal, one of the mythological menagerie
of the ancient Egyptians. There is a tradition, however, which gives great interest to this place in
Christian history, as the resting-place of Joseph and Mary when they fled into Egypt, with the infant
Saviour, from the persecution of Herod.
Siout is situated on the western side of the Nile, about a mile and a half from the river, and
about midway between it and the Libyan hills, in which are numerous caves and tombs of the ancient
inhabitants. The town itself, surrounded by luxuriant fields and gardens, lies above the level of high
Nile. During the inundation the country around is flooded, and the approach to the town is by a
dyke, or embankment, connected with a bridge of many arches : the approach by the picturesque ruins
of a mosque is striking. The present town, one of the largest above Cairo, is comparatively modern,
and contains above 20,000 inhabitants; the streets are wider and the houses better built than in most
of the towns of Egypt: it has numerous minarets and a palace of the Pacha.
Siout contains about one thousand Christians, and is the see of a Coptic bishop. It is a place of
some commercial importance as a point of communication on the Nile with the caravan of Sennaar,
the emporium of slaves and the merchandise of Abyssinia. The caves of ancient Lycopolis furnish a
great supply of mummies; and fragments of bodies and pieces of cere-cloth attest the unfeeling
rapacity for violating the tombs, which the ready market offered by mummy-hunters has engendered.
Roberts's Journal.
;i@i!iT,
Formerly Lycopolis — a name derived from the worship of the jackal, one of the mythological menagerie
of the ancient Egyptians. There is a tradition, however, which gives great interest to this place in
Christian history, as the resting-place of Joseph and Mary when they fled into Egypt, with the infant
Saviour, from the persecution of Herod.
Siout is situated on the western side of the Nile, about a mile and a half from the river, and
about midway between it and the Libyan hills, in which are numerous caves and tombs of the ancient
inhabitants. The town itself, surrounded by luxuriant fields and gardens, lies above the level of high
Nile. During the inundation the country around is flooded, and the approach to the town is by a
dyke, or embankment, connected with a bridge of many arches : the approach by the picturesque ruins
of a mosque is striking. The present town, one of the largest above Cairo, is comparatively modern,
and contains above 20,000 inhabitants; the streets are wider and the houses better built than in most
of the towns of Egypt: it has numerous minarets and a palace of the Pacha.
Siout contains about one thousand Christians, and is the see of a Coptic bishop. It is a place of
some commercial importance as a point of communication on the Nile with the caravan of Sennaar,
the emporium of slaves and the merchandise of Abyssinia. The caves of ancient Lycopolis furnish a
great supply of mummies; and fragments of bodies and pieces of cere-cloth attest the unfeeling
rapacity for violating the tombs, which the ready market offered by mummy-hunters has engendered.
Roberts's Journal.