ntified.
It is neither at Kom-es-Sultan, as Mariette thought, nor,
according to the hypothesis of A. Schmidt, at El-Kherbeh.
Brugsch has proposed to fix the site at the village of
Tineh, near Berdis, and is followed in this by Dumichen. The
present tendency is to identify it either with Girgeh
itself, or with one of the small neighbouring towns--for
example, Birbeh--where there are some ancient ruins; this
was also the opinion of Champollion and of Nester L'hote. I
may mention that, in a frequently quoted passage of
Hellanicos, Zoega corrects the reading [Greek phrase], which
would once more give us the name of Thinis: the mention of
this town as being "situated on the river," would be a fresh
reason for its identification with Girgeh.

[Illustration: 332.jpg PLAN OF THE RUINS OF ABYDOS, MADE BY MARIETTE IN
1865 AND 1875.]

The principality of the Osirian Reliquary, of which it was the
metropolis, occupied the valley from one mountain range to the other,
and gradually extended across the desert as far as the Great Theban
Oasis. Its inhabitants worshipped a sky-god, Anhuri, or rather two twin
gods, Anhuri-Shu, who were speedily amalgamated with the solar deities
and became a warlike personification of Ra. Anhuri-Shu, like all the
other solar manifestations, came to be associated with a goddess having
the form or head of a lioness--a Sokhit, who took for the occasion the
epithet of Mihit, the northern one. Some of the dead from this city
are buried on the other side of the Nile, near the modern village of
Mesheikh, at the foot of the Arabian chain, whose steep cliffs here
approach somewhat near the river: the principal necropolis was at some
distance to the east, near the sacred town of Abydos. It would appear
that, at the outset, Abydos was the capital of the country, for the
entire nome bore the same name as the city, and had adopted for its
symbol the representation of the reliquary in which the god reposed. In
very early times Abydos fell into decay, and resigned its political rank
to Thinis, but its religious importance remained unimpaired. The city
occupied a long and narrow strip of land between the canal and the first
slopes of the Libyan mountains. A brick fortress defended it from the
incursions of the Bedouin, and beside it the temple of the god of the
dead reared its naked walls. Here, Anhuri, having passed from life to
death, was worshipped u