Library › Egeria › Pilgrimage of Etheria

Pilgrimage of Etheria

Egeria, tr. McClure and Feltoe, 1919

17. Antioch to Mesopotamia. The Crossing of the Euphrates

Then, setting out from Antioch to Mesopotamia in the Name of Christ our God, I journeyed through certain stations and cities of the province of Cœle-Syria, which is Antioch, and entering the borders of the province of Augustofratensis,¹ I came to the city of Gerapolis² which is the metropolis of Augustofratensis. And as this city is very beautiful and rich and abounds in everything, it was necessary for me to make a halt there, for the borders of Mesopotamia were not far distant. Then starting from Ierapolis,³ I came, in the Name of God, at the fifteenth milestone to the river Euphrates, of which it is very well written that it is the great river Euphrates⁴; it is huge and, as it were, terrible, for it flows down with a current like the river Rhone, only the Euphrates is still greater. And as we had to cross in ships, and in large ships only, I waited there until after midday, and then in the Name of God I crossed the river Euphrates and entered the borders of Mesopotamia in Syria.

Previous · Contents · Next