Histories

by fastening these four foot logs to long and close-set stakes; and having done so, they set crossbeams athwart and on the logs. They use no ribs. They caulk the seams within with byblus.

There is one rudder, passing through a hole in the boat's keel. The mast is of acacia-wood and the sails of byblus. These boats cannot move upstream unless a brisk breeze continues; they are towed from the bank; but downstream they are managed thus:

they have a raft made of tamarisk wood, fastened together with matting of reeds, and a pierced stone of about two talents' weight; the raft is let go to float down ahead of the boat, connected to it by a rope, and the stone is connected by a rope to the after part of the boat.

So, driven by the current, the raft floats swiftly and tows the “baris” (which is the name of these boats,) and the stone dragging behind on the river bottom keeps the boat's course straight. There are many of these boats; some are of many thousand talents' burden.

When the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile overflows the land, only the towns are seen high and dry above the water, very like the islands in the +Aegean Sea [25,38.5] (sea) Aegean sea. These alone stand out, the rest of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt being a sheet of water. So when this happens, folk are not ferried, as usual, in the course of the stream, but clean over the plain.

Indeed, the boat going up from Kawm Juayf [30.583,30.9] (inhabited place), Al Buhayrah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, AfricaNaucratis to Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, AfricaMemphis passes close by the pyramids themselves, though the course does not go by here,[*](The meaning of these words is not clear. Some think that they mean “though here the course is not so” and that perhaps o( e)wqw/s has been lost after ou(=tos. ) but by the Delta's point and the town Cercasorus; but your voyage from the sea and +Canopus [30.5,31.316] (deserted settlement), Al-Iskandariyah, Urban, Egypt, Africa Canobus to Kawm Juayf [30.583,30.9] (inhabited place), Al Buhayrah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, AfricaNaucratis will take you over the plain near the town of Anthylla and that which is called Arkhandrus' town.