The Lady of Bubastis

Among the many cities which thus attained to a great elevation, none (I think) was raised so much as the town called Bubastis, where there is a temple of the goddess Bubastis [Bast], which well deserves to be described. Other temples may be grander, and may have cost more in the building, but there is none so pleasant to the eye as this of [Bast]. [sic] 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 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 stones for a distance of about three furlongs, which passes straight through the market-place in an easterly direction, and is about four hundred feet in width. Trees of extraordinary height grow on each side of the road, which, conducts from the temple of [Bast] to that of Mercury.