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[13] And as the pens of geographers have drawn it, the whole circuit just described has this form. In the northern direction, to the Caspian Gates 1 it borders on the Cadusii, on many tribes of the Scythians, and on the Arimaspse, wild, one-eyed men. On the west it touches Armenia, Niphates, 2 the Asiatic Albani, the Red Sea, 3 and the Scenitic Arabs, whom men of later times called the Saracens. 4 Under the southern heaven it looks down on Mesopotamia. 5 Opposite the eastern front it extends to the Ganges river, which cuts through India and empties into the southern ocean.

1 A pass in Mt. Taurus, between Parthia and Media.

2 A mountain of Armenia.

3 The Red Sea (Persian Gulf) is south (or south-west) of the Persian empire; cf. Pliny, N.H. vi. 112, a meridie, and Mesopotamia is west.

4 Cf. xiv. 4, xxii. 15, 2.

5 Cf. xiv. 4, xxii. 15, 2.

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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), NIPHA´TES
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