Chapter 5: On Libya (Africa)

3. It begins at the boundaries of Egypt,[350] extending along the South through Ethiopia as far as Mt. Atlas. On the north it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, and it ends at the strait of Gades, having the provinces Libya Cyrenensis, Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthago, Numidia, Mauritania Stifensis, Mauritania Tingitana, and in the neighborhood of the sun’s heat, Ethiopia.

[350] Egypt is regarded as part of Asia. 14, 3, 27–28.

14. Ethiopia is so called from the color of its people, who are scorched by the nearness of the sun. The color of the people betrays the sun’s intensity, for there is never-ending heat here. Whatever there is of Ethiopia is under the south pole. Towards the west it is mountainous, sandy in the middle, and toward the eastern region, a desert. Its situation extends from the Atlas Mts. on the west to the bounds of Egypt on the east. It is bounded on the south by the ocean, on the north by the river Nile. It has many peoples, of diverse appearance and fear-inspiring because of their monstrous aspect.

17. Besides the three parts of the circle there is a fourth part across the Ocean on the South,[351] which is unknown to us on account of the heat of the sun, in whose boundaries, according to story, the Antipodes are said to dwell.

[351] Extra tres autem partes orbis, quarta pars trans Oceanum
interior est in Meridie.