SIUT, se-cwt' (Egyptian •S'yoiret). or ASSIUT. A city of Upper Egypt, situated near the west bank of the Nile, in latitude 27° 10' N., 248 miles south of Cairo. In very early times it was a place of importance. owing to its favorable situa tion in the midst of a fertile district at the starting point of the great caravan route leading to the oases of the Libyan desert and the Sudan. It was the seat of worship of the deity Rep-wat, who is represented in the form of a jackal or wolf, and hews) in later times the city was called by the Greeks Lycopolis or 'Wolttown.' Under the Twelfth Dynasty the nomarchs of Sint seem to have maintained great state, and their rock hewn tombs in the vicinity are richly adorned with sculptures and paintings, and contain in scriptions of great historieal value. Plotinus, the greatest of the Neo-Platonie philosophers.
was born at Sint, and about A.D. 205 the city and the adjacent district were converted to Chris tianity. Many anchorites took up their abode in the neighboring necropolis, and one of these. John of Lycopolis, is said to have predicted to Theodosius his victory over Eugenius in 394. The modern town of Sint is situated on the Nile Valley Railway. It has several fine mosques, bazaars, good baths, and well-built house,. It is noted for its pottery and extensive manufac tures of the best pipe-bowls. It is the residence of the Governor of Upper Eypt. Population, in 1882, 31,575; in 1900, 42,000. Consult: De scription de rEgypte (Paris, 1809-1829); Lepsius, Denk miller (Berlin, 1849-58) ; Marlette, Monuments of Upper Egypt (London, 1877) ; Griffith, The Inscriptions of Siat and Der Rifch (ib., 1889). •