The Geography

places, according to those who have come to us from those parts. This place is called Timula by the inhabitants, from whom we have learned many other things concerning India and its provinces in greater detail. Furthermore, we have gathered much information about the interior, specifically from this province all the way to the Golden Chersonese The Malay Peninsula and from there to Cattigara A legendary port in Southeast Asia or China, the furthest point known to Ptolemy. We also know that the course of those sailing there is toward the rising of the sun [East], and for those returning, it is toward its setting [West].

They also report an intractable and unfavorable season for navigation; beyond the Sinas The Chinese is the region of the Seres The "Silk People" of Central Asia/China and the metropolis of Sera. Beyond that, the regions which verge more toward the East are unknown, because they are said to contain marshy lagoons in which reeds grow so large and thick that they allow passage by grasping them. From there, there is a route not only to Bactriana Central Asia by way of the Stone Tower original: "lapideam turrim"; a famous landmark on the Silk Road, likely in modern Tajikistan but also to the Indians by way of Palimbrocha Pataliputra, modern Patna in India.

However, the route from the metropolis of the Sinas to the port of Cattigara looks toward the West and the South. Therefore, it does not fall on the meridian drawn through the Seres and Cattigara, as Marinus reported, but rather in certain places further to the East. We have also learned from merchants who sail from Happy Arabia original: "felici arabia"; the southern Arabian peninsula for spices, and to Azania and Rapta—all of which they call Barbary The coast of East Africa—that this navigation is not strictly toward the South, but toward the West and South. The passage from Rapta to Prasum A promontory in East Africa, perhaps in modern Tanzania is toward the rising sun and the South.

Furthermore, the lagoons from which the Nile flows are not near the sea itself, but further inland. The distance from the Coast of Aromatics The Horn of Africa and the bays to the promontory of Rapta is different from what Marinus described. Moreover, the navigation of a natural day A 24-hour period there, covering many stadia, is not easily calculated due to the changing winds under the equator; rather, it exists at about four hundred or five hundred stadia.

There is a first continuous gulf at the Coast of Aromatics, in which, after a one-day journey from Aromatics, is Panocone; and the trading center of Hopone is six days distant from Panocone. After that trading center, they say another gulf follows, the beginning of Azania, at the start of which is the promontory of Zingis and Phalangis, notable for its three peaks. This gulf alone is called Apocopa, and its crossing takes two natural days. Then, after this, they say one reaches that which is called the Small Coast, which consists of three distances. After that is another called the Great Coast, consisting of five distances, both of which are said to be navigable in four natural days.

They say another gulf joins these, in which there is a trading center named Essina, reached after a crossing of two natural days. After that is the naval station of Serapion, a one-day sail away. From here, he records that the gulf begins which leads to Rapta, having a crossing of three natural days. At the beginning of this, they say there is a trading center called Tonici. Next, they mention a river near the promontory of Rapta, called the Raptus, and a metropolis of the same name not far from the sea. Afterward is the gulf that extends from Rapta to the promontory of Prasum, which, although it is very large, is not of vast depth. The barbarians who live around it are Man-eaters original: "antropophagi"; cannibals.

C ### On the difficulty Marinus faced in the description of the world.

V The text begins with a large decorative initial 'V' Just as certain things worthy of memory according to the tradition of history have been treated up to this point—lest we seem to some to have raised a doubt without resolving it—everything will indeed become known to us through a detailed exposition of the places themselves.

It remains for us to consider what pertains to the description of the Earth itself. Since the form of this work is twofold—for first, there is that which places the surface of our habitable world on a sphere; second, that which is marked on a plane—one thing is common to both: the ease of the task. That is, how a convenient and handy description may be made on a map, as much as possible, from data original: "comentarijs" alone, even without a pictorial model. For to create new maps from earlier models often leads to the greatest dissimilarity, as errors begin to creep in little by little. Thus, the method which is grasped through data is perhaps not sufficient to create a map for those who lack an image to follow.