Book 1
3.13
To what we cited before concerning the temple of Ammon and Egypt, Eratosthenes adds, that to judge from appearances, Mount CasiusEl-Kas. was formerly covered by sea, and the whole district now known as Gerra lay under shoal water touching the bay of the Erythraean Sea,The Arabian Gulf. Mr. Stephenson, while examining the Temsah Lakes, anciently called the Bitter Lakes, discovered recent marine remains similar to those on the shores of the present sea, clearly showing that the basin of the Temsah Lakes was the head of the Arabian Gulf at a period geologically recent. but was left dry on the unionWe have here followed MSS. which all read συνελθούσης δὲ τῆς θαλάττης. The French editors propose συνενδούσης δὲ τῆς θαλάττης, with the sense of but on the retiring of the Mediterranean, etc. of the [Mediterranean] Sea [with the ocean]. A certain amphibology lurks here under this description of the district lying under shoal water and touching the bay of the Erythraean Sea; for to touchThis accusation may not seem quite fair to the English reader. Touch is the nearest term in our language by which we can express the Greek συνάπτω, the use of which Strabo objects to in this passage; still the meaning of the English word is much too definite for the Greek. both means to be close to, and also to be in actual contact with, so that when applied to water it would signify that one flows into the other. I understand him to mean, that so long as the strait by the Pillars of Hercules remained closed, these marshes covered with shoal-water extended as far as the Arabian Gulf, but on that passage being forced open, the Mediterranean, discharging itself by the strait, became lower, and the land was left dry.
