Latin Texts & Translations

Of the islands which lie before Asia the first is the one situate in the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, and which received its name, it is said, from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaüs. A second, called Pharos, is joined by a bridge to Alexandria, and was made a colony by the Dictator Cæsar. In former times it was one day's sail ^[Note] from the mainland of Egypt; at the present day it directs ships in their course by means of the fires which are lighted at night on the tower ^[Note] there; for in consequence of the insidious nature of the shoals, there are only three channels by which Alexandria can be approached, those of Steganus ^[Note], Posideum ^[Note] and Taurus.

In the Phœnician Sea, before Joppe there is the island of Paria ^[Note], the whole of it forming a town. Here, they say, Andromeda was exposed to the monster: the island also of Arados, already mentioned ^[Note], between which and the continent, as we learn from Mucianus, at a depth of fifty cubits in the sea, fresh water is brought up from a spring at the very bottom by means of leather pipes ^[Note].