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)

390 GOW, OR ANTjEOPOLIS. [Chap. VI.

fact it extended considerably farther to the north,
even to the vicinity Antinoe;* and to the Antinoite
nome were attached the two Oases.

Behind the town of E'Sioot, and to the north of
the projecting angle of the mountain is the modern
cemetery, whose tombs, being arranged with con-
siderable taste, have a neat and pleasing effect.
And at its south-east extremity, immediately above
the village of Dronka, is a large bed of alabaster,
resting on the limestone rock, but not sufficiently
compact to admit of its being quarried.

Aboolfidda, on the authority of Ebn Said, relates
a story concerning the mountain of E'Sioot, which
has always been applied to Gebel e' Tayr (" the
mountain of the bird") below Minyeh: that the birds
of Egypt performed an annual pilgrimage thither,
one always remaining fixed to the spot till the
ensuing year, when it was relieved by another, who
was detained in a similar manner by the same
talisman.

From E'Sioot to Qeneh. — At Shodb are the
mounds and crude brick ruins of Hypsele,f in
Coptic, Shotp. El Wasta, probably Contra Lyco-
polis, presents nothing worthy of a visit. At
Sherg Selin is the site of Selinon; and at Abooteeg
are the mounds of Abutis.

A little below Gow are several grottoes, at the
projecting corner of the mountain, which thence

* Ptolemy, lib. iv. c. 6.
t Hypsele was formerly a bishop's see.