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The following is a description of this edifice: Excepting the
entrance, the whole forms an island. Two artificial channels from the
Nile, one on either side of the temple, encompass the building,
leaving only a narrow passage by which it is approached. These
channels are each a hundred feet wide, and are thickly shaded with
trees. The gateway is sixty feet in height, and is ornamented with
figures cut upon the stone, six cubits high and well worthy of notice.
The temple stands in the middle of the city, and is visible on all
sides as one walks round it; for as the city has been raised up by
embankment, while the temple has been left untouched in its original
condition, you look down upon it wheresoever you are. A low wall runs
round the enclosure, having figures engraved upon it, and inside there
is a grove of beautiful tall trees growing round the shrine, which
contains the image of the goddess. The enclosure is a furlong in
length, and the same in breadth. The entrance to it is by a road
paved with stone for a distance of about three furlongs, which passes
straight through the market-place with an easterly direction, and is
about four hundred feet in width. Trees of an extraordinary height
grow on each side the road, which conducts from the temple of Bubastis
to that of Mercury.
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