Whereupon Solyman Left A Garrison To Keep Possession Of
The City, And Proceeded On His Voyage To Diu.
[Footnote 268:
This singular expression certainly means the Red Sea,
which the Arabs often call the Straits of Mecca, or more properly the
Gulf of Mecca; sometimes Bahr-hejaz, or the Sea of Hejaz, one of the
provinces of Arabia. - E.]
From the Cape of Guardafu on the coast of Africa, anciently called
Aromata, and from the opposite promontory of Siagros or Cape
Fartak in Asia, all the sea to the city of the heroes, now Suez,
is called the Arabian Gulf, vulgarly the Red Sea. The distance between
these two promontories may be 58 leagues. From these promontories the
coast on both sides of this sea extends towards the west, nearly at the
same distance, till they come to the two cities of Aden in Arabia; and
Zeyla in Ethiopia or Abexi[269]; and from thence the two shores
begin to approximate rapidly, with desert coasts and little winding,
till they almost meet in the straits which are formed by two capes or
promontories; that on the Arabian side being named Possidium by the
ancients, but I could never learn either the ancient or modern name of
that on the side of Ethiopia[270]. This strait between the promontories
is called by the neighbouring people and those who inhabit the coasts of
the Indian ocean Albabo[271], which signifies the gates or mouths in
the Arabic language. This strait is six leagues across, in which space
there are so many islands, little islets, and rocks, as to occasion a
suspicion that it was once stopped up.
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