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Pilgrimage of Etheria

Egeria, tr. McClure and Feltoe, 1919

10. Epiphany at the City of Arabia. Return to Jerusalem

Now it fell out by a very happy chance that the day on which we came to the station of Arabia was the eve of the most blessed day of the Epiphany, and the vigils were to be kept in the church on the same day. Wherefore the holy bishop detained us there for some two days, a holy man and truly a man of God, well known to me from the time when I had been in the Thebaid. He became a holy bishop after being a monk, for he was brought up from a child in a cell, for which reason he is so learned in the Scriptures and chastened in his whole life, as I said above. From this place we sent back the soldiers who according to Roman discipline had given us the help of their escort as long as we had walked through suspected places. Now, however, as the public road — which passed by the city of Arabia and leads from the Thebaid to Pelusium — ran through Egypt, there was no need to trouble the soldiers further. Setting out thence we pursued our journey continuously through the land of Goshen, among vines that yield wine and vines that yield balsam, among orchards, highly cultivated fields and very pleasant gardens, our whole route lying along the bank of the river Nile among oft-recurring estates, which were once the homesteads of the children of Israel. And why should I say more? for I think that I have never seen a more beautiful country than the land of Goshen. And travelling thus for two days from the city of Arabia through the land of Goshen continuously, we arrived at Tatnis,¹ the city where holy Moses was born. This city of Tatnis was once Pharaoh’s metropolis. Now although I had already known these places — as I said above — when I had been at Alexandria and in the Thebaid, yet I wished to learn thoroughly all the places through which the children of Israel marched on their journey from Rameses to Sinai, the holy mountain of God; this made it necessary to return to the land of Goshen and thence to Tatnis. We set out from Tatnis and, walking along the route that was already known to me, I came to Pelusium. Thence I set out again, and journeying through all those stations in Egypt through which we had travelled before, I arrived at the boundary of Palestine. Thence in the Name of Christ our God I passed through several stations in Palestine and returned to Aelia,² that is Jerusalem.

Plate: Red granite group of Rameses II. and the god Atmu. Found at Raamses, now Tell Retabeh. Probably the figures later called Moses and Aaron. (From “Hyksos and Israelite Cities.” Pl. XXXII.)

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