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Thus I give credit to those from whom I received this account of
Egypt, and am myself, moreover, strongly of the same opinion, since
I remarked that the country projects into the sea further than the
neighbouring shores, and I observed that there were shells upon the
hills, and that salt exuded from the soil to such an extent as even to
injure the pyramids; and I noticed also that there is but a single
hill in all Egypt where sand is found, namely, the hill above
Memphis; and further, I found the country to bear no resemblance
either to its borderland Arabia, or to Libya - nay, nor even to
Syria, which forms the seaboard of Arabia; but whereas the soil of
Libya is, we know, sandy and of a reddish hue, and that of Arabia
and Syria inclines to stone and clay, Egypt has a soil that is black
and crumbly, as being alluvial and formed of the deposits brought down
by the river from Ethiopia.
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