Geography

​And for all those situated between the tropic and the equator, the shadows shift to both sides, namely toward the north and toward the south; but for those north of Syene, from the summer tropic, the shadows fall toward the north at noon; and the former are called Amphiscii, and the latter Heteroscii. And there is also a certain other difference for those under the tropic, which we mentioned before in our discussion of the zones. For this region is sandy and silphium-producing and dry, whereas the parts more to the south are well-watered and fruitful.

​And in the regions south of the parallel through Alexandria and Cyrene by about four hundred stades, where the longest day is fourteen equinoctial hours, Arcturus comes directly overhead, declining slightly to the south. And in Alexandria, the gnomon has the ratio to the equinoctial shadow which five has to three. And they are south of Carthage by one thousand three hundred stades, if indeed in Carthage the gnomon has the ratio to the equinoctial shadow which eleven has to seven. And this parallel extends on one side through Cyrene and the regions south of Carthage by nine hundred stades as far as the middle of Maurusia, and on the other side through Egypt, Coele-Syria, Upper Syria, Babylonia, Susiana, Persis, Carmania, Upper Gedrosia, as far as India.

​And in the regions about Ptolemais in Phoenicia, and Sidon, and Tyre, the longest day is fourteen and a quarter equinoctial hours; and these are north of Alexandria by about one thousand six hundred stades, and north of Carthage by about seven hundred. And in the Peloponnese, and about the middle of Rhodes, and about Xanthus in Lycia or the regions slightly to the south of it, and also the regions south of Syracuse by four hundred stades, there the longest day is fourteen and a half equinoctial hours; and these places are distant from Alexandria by three thousand six hundred and forty stades. And this parallel, according to Eratosthenes, extends through Caria, Lycaonia, Cataonia, Media, the Caspian Gates, and the country of the Indians along the Caucasus.

​And in the regions about Alexandria in the Troad, and at Amphipolis, and Apollonia in Epirus, and those regions south of Rome but north of Neapolis, the longest day is fifteen equinoctial hours; and this parallel is distant from the parallel through Alexandria near Egypt by about seven thousand stades toward the north, from the equator by more than twenty-eight thousand eight hundred, and from the one through Rhodes by three thousand four hundred, and to the south of Byzantium, Nicaea, and the regions about Massalia by one thousand five hundred stades; and the parallel through Lysimachia is slightly more arctic than this, which Eratosthenes says runs through Mysia, Paphlagonia, and the regions about Sinope, Hyrcania, and Bactra.

​And in the regions about Byzantium, the longest day is fifteen and a quarter equinoctial hours, and at the summer solstice the gnomon has the ratio to the shadow which one hundred and twenty has to forty-two minus one-fifth. And these places are distant from the parallel through the middle of Rhodes by about four thousand nine hundred stades, and from the equator by about thirty-three thousand. And for those who sail into the Pontus and advance toward the north about one thousand four hundred stades, the longest day becomes fifteen and a half equinoctial hours; and these places are equidistant from both the pole and the equator, and the arctic circle is directly overhead for them, on which lies both the star in the neck of Cassiopeia and the one in the right elbow of Perseus, the latter being slightly more to the north.