CHAP. 12. (11.)—THE COASTS OF ARABIA, SITUATE ON THE EGYPTIAN SEA.
Beyond the Pelusiac Mouth is Arabia3597, which extends to the Red Sea, and joins the Arabia known by the surname of Happy3598, so famous for its perfumes and its wealth. This3599 is called Arabia of the Catabanes3600, the Esbonitæ3601, and the Scenitæ3602; it is remarkable for its sterility, except in the parts where it joins up to Syria, and it has nothing remarkable in it except Mount Casius3603. The Arabian nations of the Canchlæi3604 join these on the east, and, on the south the Cedrei3605, both of which peoples are adjoining to the Nabatæi3606. The two gulfs of the Red Sea, where it borders upon Egypt, are called the Heroöpolitic3607 and the Ælanitic3608. Between the two towns of Ælana3609 and Gaza3610 upon our sea3611, there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoë3612, a town on the Red Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance!