Book 2
28.1
Let this be, then, as it is and as it was in the beginning. But as to the sources of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile , no one that conversed with me, Egyptian, Libyan, or Greek, professed to know them, except the recorder of the sacred treasures of Athena in the Egyptian city of Saïs.
28.2
I thought he was joking when he said that he had exact knowledge, but this was his story. Between the city of Aswan [32.933,24.83] (inhabited place), Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Syene in the Thebaid (region (general)), Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebaid and Elephantine, there are two hills with sharp peaks, one called Crophi and the other Mophi.
28.3
The springs of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile , which are bottomless, rise between these hills; half the water flows north towards Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , and the other half south towards Ethiopia [39,8] (nation), Africa Ethiopia .
28.4
He said that Psammetichus king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt had put to the test whether the springs are bottomless: for he had a rope of many thousand fathoms' length woven and let down into the spring, but he could not reach to the bottom.
28.5
This recorder, then, if he spoke the truth, showed, I think, that there are strong eddies and an upward flow of water, such that with the stream rushing against the hills the sounding-line when let down cannot reach bottom.
29.1
I was unable to learn anything from anyone else, but this much further I did learn by the most extensive investigation that I could make, going as far as the city of Elephantine to look myself, and beyond that by question and hearsay.
29.2
Beyond Elephantine, as one travels inland, the land rises. Here one must pass with the boat roped on both sides as men harness an ox; and if the rope breaks, the boat will be carried away by the strength of the current.
