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106.

As to the pillars that Sesostris, king of Egypt, set up in the countries, most of them are no longer to be seen. But I myself saw them in the Palestine district of Syria, with the aforesaid writing and the women's private parts on them. [2] Also, there are in Ionia two figures1 of this man carved in rock, one on the road from Ephesus to Phocaea, and the other on that from Sardis to Smyrna. [3] In both places, the figure is over twenty feet high, with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment proportional; for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian; [4] and right across the breast from one shoulder to the other a text is cut in the Egyptian sacred characters, saying: “I myself won this land with the strength of my shoulders.” There is nothing here to show who he is and whence he comes, but it is shown elsewhere. [5] Some of those who have seen these figures guess they are Memnon, but they are far indeed from the truth.

1 Two such figures have been discovered in the pass of Karabel, near the old road from Ephesus to Smyrna. They are not, however, Egyptian in appearance.

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