s in his XVII book thus: "The city of _Heroes_, or of _Cleopatra_,
by some called _Arsinoe_, is in the uttermost bounds of the _Sinus
Arabicus_, which is towards Egypt.". Pliny, in the VI. book of his
Natural History, seems to call the port of Suez _Danao_, on account of
the trench or canal opened between the Nile and the Red Sea. The
latitude of Suez is 29 deg. 45' N. being the nearest town and port of the
Red Sea to the great city of Cairo, called anciently _Babylon_ of Egypt.
From Suez to the _Levant Sea_ or Mediterranean, at that mouth of one of
the seven branches of the Nile which is called _Pelusium_, is about 40
leagues by land, which space is called the _isthmus_, or narrow neck of
land between the two seas. On this subject Strabo writes in his XVII.
book, "The isthmus between Pelusium and the extreme point of the Arabian
Gulf where stands the _City of Heroes_, is 900 stadia." This is the port
of the Red Sea to which Cleopatra Queen of Egypt, after the victory
obtained by Augustus over Antony, commanded ships to be carried by land
from the Nile, that they might flee to the Indians.

Sesostris King of Egypt and Darius King of Persia undertook at different
periods to dig a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, on purpose to
open a navigable communication between the Mediterranean and the Indian
ocean; but as neither of them completed the work, Ptolomy made a trench
100 feet broad and 30 feet deep, which being nearly finished, he
discontinued lest the sea-water from the Arabian Gulf might render the
water of the Nile salt and unfit for use. Others say that, on taking the
level, the architects and masters of the work found that the Sea of
Arabia was _three cubits_ higher than the land of Egypt, whence it was
feared that all the country would be inundated and destroyed. The
ancient authors on this subject are Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, Pomponius
Mela, Strabo, and many other cosmographers[322].

[Footnote 322: This communication was actually opened about A.D. 685,
by _Amru_, who conquered Egypt for _Moawiah_, the first _Ommiyan
Khalifah_ of Damascus. It was called _al Khalij al Amir al Momenein_, or
the canal of the commander of the faithful, the title of the Caliphs. It
was shut up about 140 years afterwards by _Abu Jafar al Mansur_.--Astl.]

Although the town of Suez had a great name of old, it is small enough at
this time, and I believe had been utterly ruined and abandoned if the
Turkish navy had not been station