AMMON, anciently a city of Marmarica. (Ptolemy.)
Arrian calls it a place, not a city, in which stood the temple of Jupiter Ammon, entirely surrounded by sandy wastes. Pliny states, that the oracle of Ammon was 12 days' journey from Memphis, and among the Nomi of Egypt he reckons the Nomos Ammoniacus; Diiodorus Siculus, that the district where the temple stood, though surrounded with deserts, was watered by dews which fell nowhere else in all that country. It was agreeably adorned with fruitful trees and springs, and full of villages. In the middle stood the Acropolis or citadel, encompassed with a triple wall; the first and inmost of which contained the palace; the others the apartments of the women, the relations, and children, as also the temple of the god, and the sacred fountains for lustrations. Without the Acropolis stood, at no great distance, another temple of Ammon, shaded by a number of tall trees; near which there was a fountain, called that of the sun, or Solis Fons, because subject to extraordinary changes according to the time of the day; morning and evening warm, at noon cold, at midnight extremely hot. A kind of fossil salt was said to be naturally produced here. It was dug out of the earth in large oblong pieces, transparent as crystal. It was thought to be a present worthy of kings, and used by the Egyptians in their sacrifices. From this our sal-ammonite has taken its name. The observations of Brown and Hornemann prove that the oasis of Siwah is the district in which this celebrated oracle was situated. Pliny places it at 12 days' journey from Memphis, and Hornemann reached Siwah in 12 days from Cairo. These travellers found an old building 32 feet long, 15 broad, and 18 high, formed of large stones, and with some hieroglyphics upon it. This is most probably the ancient sanctuary of Jupiter, which was placed in an inclosure, and surrounded by an outer wall. Near this old building is a spring, which still preserves, in popular opinion, the qualities attributed by the ancients to the Fountain of the Sun, and which in fact belong to all deep-seated cold springs: it is said to be warm in the night and cold in the day. Our modern travellers found also the salt incrustations, the numerous date-trees, and the sea-shells and fossil wood in the neighbouring desert, which Strabo and other old writers notice. Arrian and Diiodorus describe the district as having a breadth of 40 or 50 stadia, with which Brown's estimate of 4 to 6 English miles nearly agrees. Hornemann makes the circumference 50 miles, but he includes some patches of habitable land near it, but not continuous with it. Siwah is inhabited by a considerable number of people, who are Mahometans.