Geography

​On the right of the Canopic gate as one goes out is the canal which connects with the lake and leads to Canopus; and by this canal there is a voyage to Schedia, to the great river, and to Canopus, but first to Eleusis. This is a settlement situated near Alexandria and Nicopolis, on the Canopic canal itself, having lodgings and outlooks for those, both men and women, who wish to indulge in pleasure, being a sort of beginning of the Canopic way of life and the wantonness there. For those who have gone on a little from Eleusis, on the right is the canal leading up to Schedia; and Schedia is four schoeni distant from Alexandria, a city-like settlement, in which is the station for the cabin-boats on which the governors sail up to the upper country; and here also is the custom-house for goods brought down from above and carried up; for which reason a bridge of boats has been joined together over the river, from which also the place has its name. After the canal that leads to Schedia, the subsequent voyage to Canopus is parallel to the coast from Pharos as far as the Canopic mouth; for a narrow strip of land extends between the open sea and the canal, on which are the little Taposiris after Nicopolis, and Zephyrium, a cape having a small temple of Arsinoe Aphrodite; and they say that in ancient times there was also a city called Thonis there, named after the king who received Menelaus and Helen as guests. Concerning, then, the drugs of Helen, the poet speaks thus: “Excellent ones, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, gave to her.”

​Canopus is a city at a distance of one hundred and twenty stadia from Alexandria for those who go on foot, named after Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus who died there, having the temple of Sarapis honored with great holiness and producing cures, so that even the most reputable men believe and sleep in it themselves for their own benefit or others do so on their behalf. Some write down the cures, and others the powers of the oracles there. But superior to all is the crowd of festival-goers who go down from Alexandria by the canal; for every day and every night is crowded with men and women who, in their small boats, are played to on flutes and dance without restraint with the utmost wantonness, and of those who have lodgings in Canopus itself situated on the canal, well-suited for such relaxation and feasting.

​After Canopus is the Heracleum, having a temple of Heracles; then the Canopic mouth and the beginning of the Delta. The parts on the right of the Canopic canal are the Menelaite nome, so called after the brother of the first Ptolemy, not by Zeus after the hero, as some say, of whom Artemidorus also is one. After the Canopic mouth is the Bolbitine, then the Sebennytic and the Phatnitic, which is third in size compared with the first two by which the Delta is defined; for indeed not far from the apex it splits into the inside of the Delta. With the Phatnitic joins the Mendesian, then the Tanitic, and finally the Pelusiac. There are also other mouths between these, as it were, less famous false mouths. Therefore, the mouths have entrances, but not well-suited nor for large ships but for service boats because they are shallow and marshy. They used to use the Canopic mouth especially as an emporium, since the harbors at Alexandria were closed, as we said before. After the Bolbitine mouth a low and sandy cape projects further; it is called Horn of Agnus; then the watch-tower of Perseus and the wall of the Milesians; for the Milesians, having sailed during the reign of Psammetichus with thirty ships (he was in the time of Cyaxares the Mede), put in at the Bolbitine mouth, and then having disembarked, walled the said structure; and in time, having sailed up into the Saitic nome and having defeated Inaros in a sea-fight, they founded the city Naucratis, not far above Schedia. After the wall of the Milesians, for one proceeding to the Sebennytic mouth, there are lakes, one of which is called Butic from the city Buto; and there is also the city Sebennytus and Sais, the metropolis of the lower country, in which they honor Athena; and in her temple lies the tomb of Psammetichus; and near Buto is also Hermopolis, situated on an island; and in Buto is an oracle of Leto.