NUIUS
NUIUS (
Νουΐου ἐκβολαί,
Ptol. 4.6.6; in the Latin translation, “Nunii ostia” ), a river of Interior Libya, which discharged itself into the sea to the S. of Mauretania Tingitana.
It has been identified with that which is called in the Ship-journal of Hanno, LIXUS (
Λίξος, Geog. Graec. Min., p. 5, ed. Müller), and by Scylax of Caryanda (if the present text be correct),
XION (
Ξιῶν, p. 53), and by Polybius (ap. Plin. 5.1), COSENUS. The Lybian river must not be confounded with the Mauretanian river, and town of the same name, mentioned by Scylax (
I. c.; comp. Artemidorus, ap.
Strab. xvii. p.829;
Steph. B. sub voce Λίγξ; Λίζα,, Hecat.
Fr. 328;
Λίξ, Ptol. 4.1. § § 2, 13; Pomp. Mela, 3.10.6;
Plin. Nat. 5.1), and which is now represented by the river called by the Arabs
Wady-el-Khos, falling into the sea at
El-‘Arîsch, where Barth (
Wanderungen, pp. 23--25) found ruins of the ancient Lixus. The Lixus of Hanno, or Nuius of Ptolemy, is the
Quad-Dra (
Wady-Dra), which the S. declivity of the
Atlas of
Marocco sends to the
Sahara in lat. 32°: a river for the greater part of the year nearly dry, and which Renou (
Explor. de l'Alg. Hist. et Geogr. vol. viii. pp. 65--78) considers to be a. sixth longer than the Rhine.
It flows at first from N. to S., until, in N. lat. 29° and W. long. 5°, it turns almost at right
[p. 2.453]angles to its former course, runs to the W., and after passing through the great fresh-water lake of
Debaid, enters the sea at
Cape Nun. The name of this cape, so celebrated in the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century, appears to have a much older origin than has been supposed, and goes back to the time of Ptolemy. Edrisi speaks of a town,
Nul or
Wadi Nun, somewhat more to the S., and three days' journey in the interior: Leo Africanus calls it
Belad de Non. (Humboldt,
Aspects of Nature, vol. i. pp. 118--120, trans.)
[
E.B.J]