in Ancient Geography, anciently a town built by the Milesians, in Asia, on the Hellespont where it is scarce a mile over, opposite to Sestos on the European side. Now both are called the Dardanelles. Abydos lay midway between Lampsacus and Ilium, famous for Xerxes's bridge, (Herodotus, Virgil;) and for the loves of Leander and Hero, (Musaeus, Ovid;) celebrated also for its oysters (Ennius, Virgil). The inhabitants were a soft effeminate people, given much to detraction; hence the proverb, Ne temere Abydum calcare, when we would caution against danger, (Stephanus).

Ancient Geography, an inland town of Egypt, between Ptolemais and Diopolis Parva, towards Syene; famous for the palace of Memnon and the temple of Osiris. A colony of Milesians; (Stephanus). It was the only one in the country into which the singers and dancers were forbidden to enter.

The city, reduced to a village under the empire of Augustus, now presents to our view only a heap of ruins without inhabitants; but to the west of these ruins is still found the celebrated tomb of Osymandes. The entrance is under a portico 60 feet high, and supported by two rows of massive columns. The immovable solidity of the edifice, the huge masses which compose it, the hieroglyphics it is loaded with, stamp it a work of the ancient Egyptians. Beyond it is a temple 300 feet long and 145 wide. Upon entering the monument we meet with an immense hall, the roof of which is supported by 28 columns 60 feet high, and 19 in circumference at the base. They are 12 feet distant from each other. The enormous stones that form the ceiling, perfectly joined and incrustated, as it were, one in the other, offer to the eye nothing but one solid platform of marble 126 feet long and 26 wide. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics. One sees there a multitude of animals, birds, and human figures with pointed caps on their heads, and a piece of stuff hanging down behind, dressed in loose robes that come down only to the waist. The sculpture, however, is clumsy; the forms of the body, the attitudes and proportions of the members, ill-observed. Amongst these we may distinguish some women suckling their children, and men presenting offerings to them. Here also we meet with the divinities of India. Monseigneur Chevalier, formerly governor of Chandernagore, who resided 20 years in that country, carefully visited this monument on his return from Bengal. He remarked here the gods Jagannath, Ganesa, and Vechnou or Wijhou, such as they are represented in the temples of Indostan. A great gate opens at the bottom of the first hall, which leads to an apartment 46 feet long by 22 wide. Six square pillars support the roof of it; and at the angles are the doors of four other chambers, but so choked up with rubbish that they cannot now be entered. The last hall, 64 feet long by 24 wide, has stairs by which one descends into the subterranean apartments of this grand edifice. The Arabs, in searching after treasure, have piled up heaps of earth and rubbish. In the part we are able to penetrate, sculpture and hieroglyphics are discoverable as in the upper story. The natives say that they correspond exactly with those above ground, and that the columns are as deep in the earth as their height above the surface. It would be dangerous to go far into those vaults; for the air of them is so loaded with a mephitic vapour, that a candle can scarce be kept burning in them. Six lions heads, placed on the two sides of the temple, serve as spouts to carry off the water. You mount to the top by a staircase of a very singular structure. It is built with stones incrustated in the wall, and projecting six feet out; so that being supported only at one end, they appear to be suspended in the air. The walls, the roof, and the columns of this edifice, have suffered nothing from the injuries of time; and did not the hieroglyphics, by being corroded in some places, mark its antiquity, it would appear to have been newly built. The solidity is such, that unless people make a point of destroying it, the building must last a great number of ages. Except the colossal figures, whose heads serve as an ornament to the capitals of the columns, and which are sculptured in relief, the rest of the hieroglyphics which cover the inside are carved in stone. To the left of this great building we meet with another much smaller, at the bottom of which is a sort of altar. This was probably the sanctuary of the temple of Osiris.