Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

Chap. VI.] MINYEH. 371

epoch; a conjecture partly confirmed by the Coptic
characters now and then met with on the stucco.
This town, though inhabited by Christians, must
have succeeded, like most of those in Egypt, to one of
earlier date; and the discovery of a stone bearing part
of the name of an ancient king, would have removed
all doubts on this head, if any had really existed.
The Egyptians, indeed, invariably built a small town,
or fort, on the ascent of the mountains of the east
bank, whenever the accessible slope of the hills
approached the cultivated plain, as may be seen at
Shekh Embarek, Gebel e' Tayr, Tehneh, Sbayda,
and several other places; having in view the
twofold object of guarding these passes, and of
substituting the barren rock, as a foundation to
their houses, for the more useful soil of the arable
land.

El Minyeh, Monyeh, or Minyeh ebn Khaseeb, in
Coptic, Thmone, presents nothing interesting to the
antiquary, except a few fragments of Roman-Greek
architecture over the doorway of a mosk near the
river on the north side of the town: nor could I
discover any traces of Roman baths, said to exist
there; though the vestiges of some of Arab con-
struction may be traced below the mounds that
have accumulated around them.

The modern cemetery of Minyeh is on the op-
posite bank, near Sooadee. An annual visit of
great ceremony is paid to it, and their mode of
ferrying over the corpses of the deceased, accom-

2 b2