Note 274 — Chapter VIII

The number of provinces in Egypt under the old kingdom appears to have been twenty-seven, according to the myth of the hewing of the body of Osiris into twenty-seven pieces, and the distribution of them to all the priests of the land for burial, which Diodorus has preserved. From this may be derived the number of twenty-seven courts in the labyrinth given by Strabo, p. 811, and twenty-five in Pliny, pp. 113, 114; as a fact the building had only twelve courts. Yet Strabo mentions thirty-six provinces (p. 787). Later coins give forty-six provinces, and Ptolemy forty-seven. Forty-four nomes, twenty-two for Upper Egypt and as many for Lower Egypt, can be established, together with their names.—Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 9.