Page "Anachronism" Paragraph 19

Authors sometimes telescope chronology for the sake of making a point.

Bolesław Prus does this at several junctures in his 1895 historical novel, Pharaoh, set in Egypt in 1087 – 1085 BC.

The ancient " Suez Canal ", proposed by Prince Hiram ( chapter 55 ), had existed in ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom, centuries before the period of the novel.

Conversely, the remarkably accurate calculation of the earth's circumference by Eratosthenes, and the invention of a steam engine by Heron, both ascribed in chapter 60 to the priest Menes, historically occurred in Alexandrian Egypt, centuries after the period of the novel.