HEAD OF PSAMATIK I 344

BAS-RELIEFS OF THE TIME OF PSAMATIK 351

HEAD OF NECO 355






THE STORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.




I.

THE LAND OF EGYPT.


In shape Egypt is like a lily with a crooked stem. A broad blossom
terminates it at its upper end; a button of a bud projects from the
stalk a little below the blossom, on the left-hand side. The broad
blossom is the Delta, extending from Aboosir to Tineh, a direct distance
of a hundred and eighty miles, which the projection of the coast--the
graceful swell of the petals--enlarges to two hundred and thirty. The
bud is the Fayoum, a natural depression in the hills that shut in the
Nile valley on the west, which has been rendered cultivable for many