It is however presumed, that the Reader will not have found in
perusal of this Journal, that there is much which may require his
favour or excuse: yet some details appear to need explanation, and
which (if a reference to the traveller himself were possible) might
be given in a manner the most clear and satisfactory.
In default of such advantage, the Editor offers an annotation or
comment on two subjects of peculiar interest, treated of in this
Journal, and in a manner apparently incorrect, or contradictory to
accounts given by other writers.
Page 15; the extent of the Oasis of Siwah, (as represented by Mr!
Horneman) differs widely from that stated by every other writer
ancient or modern.
Page 23; the admeasurements of the sacred Egyptian building
appear to vary in every proportion from those given by a late traveller
of allowed accuracy, Mr. Brown.
In the first instance, it is the purpose of the Annotator to ascertain
the error, and to shew whence it has arisen.
In the second case, he will have to place the subject in a point of
view, by which an apparent variation in the two accounts may not
only be reconciled, but even matter of new and just inference, as to
the ancient construction and purpose of the building in question, be
shewn to arise, from the very elucidation which corrects and compares
these differences.
Page 15; Mr. Horneman states “ the principal and fertile territory
of Siwah to be fifty miles in c i r c u i t in this he disagrees with every
OASIS, AND TEMPLE OF AMMON. 7 7
account given by the writers cited by Mr. Rennell, and with that
latterly given by Mr. Brown, who, in conformity with the descriptions
by other authors, states the extent of the Oasis, or fertile spot,
to be six miles in length, and four miles and a half in breadth ; not
exceeding eighteen miles in circumference at the utmost. It will
further appear that, in this respect, Horneman is not only at variance
with the writings of others, but with his own, and that his own
journal furnishes the strongest internal evidence in refutation of the
fact he asserts.
Horneman names all the towns within the territory of Siwah,—
Scharkie) Msellem, Monachie, Sbocka, and Barischa, and he places
all these villages, or towns, within one or two miles of Siwah the
capital, which proximity could not be the case, if the rich and fertile
land extended each way sixteen miles in traverse, as a Girele. of
fifty miles implies. On a small and most fertile tract of country,
surrounded’ on all sides by barren, and sandy deserts,- the rich and
productive soil infers a population commensurate with, and in proportion
to, its extent. Diodorus-Siculus tells us, that,'the. ancient
Ammonians dwelt i. e. vicatim. (Ed. Wesseling, Tom. TIv
p. 19,8.) And so too the people at present (on grounds probably of
convenience and defence against the Arabs of the Desert) appear to
live chiefly in-towns ; and hence those , towns must, have been more
distant, as more widely diffused over so great a space of country
from its very character and description, to be supposed in every
part occupied and appropriate. Society must- have gathered and
increased till it fully covered a country of- such exclusive fertility
and means of subsistence. Generally, increase of population is to
be measured by the means-of-subsistence; and in, con verse of the
proposition, whatever of country was, productive and habitable situated
as the Oasis of Siwah, must be considered as inhabited and