For Taking Away The Second Letter From Ailan, The
Ancient Names Are Almost The Same.
Nor is it reasonable that it should
be in any other place, as the timber for the navy of
Solomon was brought
from Lebanon and Antelibanus; and to avoid expences they would
necessarily carry it to the nearest port, especially as the Jews then
possessed the region of Idumea, and that part of the coast of Arabia
Petrea which is between Toro and Suez. Strabo holds that Elana and
Ailan are the same city; and when treating of this city in another
place, he says, that from the port of Gaza it is 1260 furlongs to the
city of Ailan, which is situated on the inwardest part of the Arabic
Gulf[315]; "and there are two, one towards Gaza and Arabia, called the
Sinus Elaniticus, from the city Elana which stands upon it; the other on
the Egyptian side towards the City of Heroes and the way from
Pelusium to this gulf is very small." This is what I would pick out
from ancient authors.
[Footnote 313: Don Juan entirely mistakes this point of antiquity, in
consequence of not having learnt that there was another and eastern gulf
at the head of the Red Sea; the Bahr-akkaba or real Sinus
Elaniticus, on which is the town of Ayla, assuredly the ancient
Elana or Aylan. - E.]
[Footnote 314: If this observation be exact, the great promontory or
peninsula between the gulfs at the head of the Red Sea must be extended
too far south in the map constructed by Dr Pocock.
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