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The ‘island’ of Meroe later was formed by the Nile and the Atbara (Astaboras), just south of Berber, and ruins of pyramids have been found in this region at Bakarawiya, south of the junction of the two rivers. H., however, probably means the town of Napata, the northern capital of the Aethiopian kingdom, which lay (near the modern Merawi, which preserves the name) some thirty miles south-west of the fourth cataract, under the ‘holy mountain’, Gebel Barkal. (So Sparig, and Hall in Murray, p. 552.)

H. had certainly never heard of the River Atbara (cf. iv. 50. 1), and the southern site for Meroe seems inconsistent with (30. 1) the statement that Meroe is only half way to the ‘Deserters’.

If, however, Meroe be Napata, then the ‘twelve days' voyage’ must be explained as not continuous, as H. had been told, but made up of two parts, one from just below Djerar (u. s.) to Halfa, and one from El Debba (south of Dongola) to Merawi.

Δία. There is a temple of Amon (i.e. Zeus) at Napata, where he was worshipped in a ram-headed shape. H. is quite right in speaking of the theocratic character of the Ethiopian kingdom; the oracle at Napata chose the king (cf. Diod. iii. 5. 6 of the later Meroe). As Ethiopia had been conquered by kings from Thebes, the Theban deities naturally were more prominent there, and the high priests of Amon, expelled by the 22nd dynasty from Thebes, had retired to Ethiopia (Maspero, Annuaire des E. G. 1877, p. 126 seq., gives interesting details as to the working of the oracle).

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