Chapter 43 (part 103)

In ancient days it was famous as the centre for stone cutting and linen weaving, and the latter industry still survives among the modern Coptic population, who, following their ancestors, call their city ###, which the Arabs have rendered by Akhmîm. Aqert , a common name for the abode of the dead. Bast , more fully Pa-Bast or Per-Bast, the Bubastis of the Greek writers (Herodotus, II., 59, 137, 156, 166; Strabo, XVII., 1, 27), the metropolis of the eighteenth nome of Lower Egypt, and the seat of the worship of Bast, a goddess who was identified with the soul of Isis, ba en Auset . The city is mentioned in the Bible under the form ### (Ezekiel xxx., 17), Pi-beseth, [1. See Amélineau, op. cit. , p. 287.] which the Copts have preserved in their name for the city, ###; the Arabs call the place Tell Basta. Het-benbent , the name given to many sun-shrines in Egypt, and also to one of the places in the other world where the deceased dwelt. Het-Ptah-ka , the sacred name of the city of Memphis, the metropolis of the first nome of Lower Egypt; it means the "House of the ka of Ptah," and was probably in use in the period of the Ist dynasty. Other names for Memphis were Aneb-het'et, "the city of the white wall", Men-nefer and Kha-nefert. Kem-ur a name given to the district of the fourth and fifth nomes of Upper Egypt. Khemennu , i.e. , the city of the eight great cosmic gods, the Hermopolis of the Greek writers ({Greek E?'rmopolitikh` fulakh` }, Strabo, XVII., I, 41), and the metropolis of the fifteenth nome of Upper Egypt. The old Egyptian name for the city is preserved in its Coptic and Arabic names, ### and Eshmûnên. Kher-aba , a very ancient city which was situated on the right bank of the Nile, a little to the south of Annu, near the site of which the "Babylon of Egypt" (the {Greek Babulw'n, frou'rion e?rumno'n } of Strabo, XVII., I, 30), was built. Manu is the name given to the region where the sun sets, which was believed to be exactly opposite to the district of Bekha, where he rose in the east; Manu is a synonym of west, just as Bekha is a synonym of east. Nekhen , the name of the shrine of the goddess Nekhebet, which is supposed to have been near to Nekheb, the capital of the third nome of Upper Egypt and the Eileithyiapolis of the Greeks. Neter-khertet , a common name for the abode of the dead; it means the "divine subterranean place." [1. See Amélineau, op. cit., p. 75. 2 See Brugsch, Diet. Géog., pp. 199, 260; Maspero, Études de Mythologie , t. i., p. 332; and Aeg. Zeitschrift , 1864, pp. 73-76.] Pe , a district of the town of Per-Uatchet, the Buto of the Greeks ({Greek Bou^tos }, Strabo, XVII., i., 18), which was situated in the Delta.