It is entitled
_Christian Topography_, and was composed at Alexandria, in the middle
of the fifth century, about twenty years after he had performed his voyage.
The chief object of his work was to confute the opinions that the earth was
a globe, and that there was a temperate zone on the south of the torrid
zone. According to Cosmas, the earth is a vast plane surrounded by a wall:
its extent 400 days' journey from east to west, and half as much from north
to south. On the wall which bounded the earth, the firmament was supported.
The succession of day and night is occasioned by an immense mountain on the
north of the earth, intercepting the light of the sun. In order to account
for the course of the rivers, he supposed that the plane of the earth
declined from north to south: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, &c. running to
the south, were rapid streams; whereas the Nile, running in a contrary
direction, was slow and sluggish. The prejudices of a monk, are
sufficiently evident in these opinions; but, in justice to Cosmas, it must
be remarked, that he labours hard, and not unsuccessfully, to prove that
his notions were all the same as those of the most ancient Greek
philosophers; and, indeed, his system differs from that of Homer,
principally in his assigning a square instead of a round figure to the
plane surface, which they both supposed to belong to the earth.
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