to Belianeh. SOHAG. Route 19. 215
31'/2M. Kau el-Gharb(W. bank) is opposite Kau el-Kebir, which
lies in the plain on the E. bank and is surrounded by a ring of
hills, containing grottoes with sculptures and quarries with demotic
inscriptions. Stamped bricks found in the mounds of dc'bris be¬
longed to buildings of the 18th Dynasty. The name Kau recalls
the ancient Egyptian name of the town Tu-Kow (Coptic Tkow);
the Greeks named it Antaeopolis, in honour of the remarkable deity
worshipped here, whom they identified with Antaeus (p. cxxv).
According to the myth, Antaeus was a Libyan king of immense strength,
who was in the habit of wrestling with all visitors to his dominions and
of slaying thuse whom he vanquished, in order to build a temple to his
father Poseidon with their skulls. Hercules came to try conclusions with
him, and after overthrowing him in a wrestling-match, slew him. —
According to Diodorus the final struggle betwixt Horus and Typhon (Set)
took place here. In the Roman period Antaeopolis was the capital of the
Antseopolitan nome. The last remains of an imposing temple, dedicated
here by Ptolemy Philometor to Antaeus and restored by Marcus Aurelius
and his colleague Verus (164 A.D.), were swept away by the Nile in 1821. —
In a deep grotto-like rmarry in the N.E. angle of the hill behind Kau are
two pillars bearing two remarkable paintings of the god Antaeus and the
goddess Nephthys.
38!/2 M. Sdhel, on the W. bank, with 4500 inhab., is the station
for the town of Tahta (p. 191), situated 2 M. inland. — On the E.
bank, a little higher up, rises the Gebel Shekh el-Harldeh, with an¬
cient quarries and tombs hewn in the rock, the openings of which
are visible from the river.
The next steamboat and railway stations are (46 M.) el-Mardgha
and (53'/2M.) Shendawln(Chandawil), both on the W. bank (p. 191).
A large market is held in the latter every Saturday. On the E. bank
ofthe stream, which here encloses several islands, are some grottoes,
without inscriptions.
63 M. Sohag (Hotel du Nil, on the river-bank), a considerable
town (14,000 inhab.) on the W. bank, is the capital of the province
of Girgeh (650 sq. M.; 688,000 inhab.) and contains a very hand¬
some government-building and elegant houses. Rail, station, see
p. 191. The Sohdglyeh Canal, which leads hence to Assiut, keeps
to the W. and is intended to convey the water of the rising Nile as
far as possible towards the Libyan Desert.
An embanked road (with telegraph-posts) leads to the W. from Sohag,
via, the village of Mazalweh, to (3 M.) the early-Christian settlement of the
White Convent, or Der el-Abyad, situated on the edge of the Libyan
mountains. The convent, also named Der Anba ShenUda after its founder,
in which husbands, wives, and children live in families (220 souls in all),
is enclosed by a lofty wall of white limestone blocks, and looks more like
a fortress than a convent. The wall and the entrance-gateway, on the S.
side, are adorned with a concave cornice like an Egyptian temple. The
handsome church dates at latest from the 5th cent, and is a basilica with
nave and aisles. The chancel ends in three vaulted apses. In the court
(formerly the nave of the church) are some ancient columns, probably
taken from the adjacent ruins of the antique Alrepe (Athribis). The rich
treasures of the library of the convent have been sold to European col¬
lectors. — About 33/4 M. to the N.W. is the Red Convent, Der el-Ahmar,
also called Der Abu Bshdi. The old church of the convent, a basilica
with nave and aisles, is a very ancient structure of brick, with elaborate
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