Note 85 — Chapter XV · RAMESES THE GREAT.

This remarkable manuscript relates the journey made by a female pilgrim of French birth, circa A.D. 370, to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the holy land. The manuscript is copied from an older original and dates from the tenth or eleventh century. Much of the work is lost, but those parts are yet perfect which describe the pilgrim’s progress through Goshen to Tanis and thence to Jerusalem, Edessa and the Haran. Of Pithom it is said: “Pithona etiam civitas quam œdificaverunt filii Israel ostensa est nubis in ipso itinere; in eo tamen loco ubi jam fines Egypti intravimus, religentes jam terras Saracenorum. Nam et ipsud nunc Pithona castrum est. Heroun autem civitas quæ fuit illo tempere, id est ubi occurit Joseph patri suo venienti, sicut scriptum est in libro Genesis nunc est comes sed grandis quod nos dicimus vicus ... nam ipse vicus nunc appellatur Hero.” See a letter on “Pithom-Heroöpolis” communicated to “The Academy” by M. Naville, March 22, 1884. See also M. Naville’s memoir, entitled “The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus” (third edition); published by order of the committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888.