Canopus, Egypt

31.30333333333330.083333333333Koordinaten: 31 ° 18 ' 12 " N, 30 ° 5' 0" E

Canopus Canopus Latin ( ancient Greek Κάνωβος Kanobos or Κάνωπος Canopus, from ancient Egyptian Kah - nub "Golden Floor " ) was an ancient Egyptian coastal city in the western Nile Delta. The city was the most important Egyptian trading port before the foundation of Alexandria. The ancient Egyptian epithet Kah - nub is an allusion to the immense wealth that the dealer acquired in the harbor here.

Geographical Location

The site is located east of Alexandria, about 25 kilometers away from the present-day center at the site of Egyptian dwelling Per- Geuti, on the west bank at the mouth of the westernmost Nilarms, the named after the site Canopic or heraklotischen Mündungsarms (he was the ancient Egyptian god Khonsu - according the Greek Heracles - consecrated ). Comparisons with the visibility of the bright star Canopus.

Founding myth and name origin

Another derivation of the name and the myth of the city's founding of Canopus is found in Homer's Iliad. Homer names the commander Kanopos of King Menelaus ' ship as the origin of the name. While Menelaus with his ships anchored off the Egyptian coast (see also the name origin of Pharos ), its captain died during a land transfer to a snake bite. Menelaus himself buried him there, and built him a grave monument, by the later of the same town was founded. Herodotus (5th century BC) called Canopus in his Egyptian logos (about 100 years before the foundation of Alexandria ) an " ancient port " - a reference to the great antiquity of the city. When Canopus was founded is unknown.

History

Hellenistic period

Pharaoh Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. erected here a temple of Osiris with oracle. There could be cured through dreams. In this temple was originally called the Canopus Decree, which was written in the ninth year of reign (239 BC), the pharaoh of a great priest and congregation in which, among other things, the pharaoh and his wife Berenice II, several new titles were awarded.

There was the channel by Canopus, who served the river police and customs collection in the period of Hellenism on the branch of the Nile.

Roman time

In Roman times the city was notorious for their extravagance and their luxury and was therefore in modern times as " St. Tropez antiquity ", respectively. In his sixth satire of Juvenal points out the ruling here debauchery. Also in the 15th satire Canopus is cited as a negative example for the luxuria ( debauchery, licentiousness ) of the Egyptians. Hadrian had the temple in his villa at Tibur replicate. When Virgil says to describe the Nile and because of their old relationship with Pella in Macedonia:

Late Antiquity

After the introduction of Christianity, the city declined. The ruins can still be found is west of the Nile. On a late antique diocese the titular Canopus of the Roman Catholic Church is declining.

Research

Earlier excavations about two to three kilometers southwest of the fishing village of Aboukir have uncovered extensive traces of the city. Among other things, they found quays and granite monuments with the name of the Pharaoh Ramses II, who were probably brought here at a later time.

The god Osiris was worshiped in Canopus in the shape of a vase with a human head. When the first Egyptologists found jars with human and animal heads in graves, they named this incorrectly after this Canopic Osiris as canopic jars.

On April 15, 1866, Canopus decree was rediscovered by Richard Lepsius during excavations at the nearby Kom el - Hisn. From this decree two copies are known to have been written in two Egyptian writing systems ( hieroglyphic and demotic ) and Greek. They formed after the Rosetta Stone, the second most important source for the understanding of the Egyptian language at the time of the Ptolemies.

Since 1996, the area is examined at the coast of the Nile. It is believed that further Canopus sunk about two kilometers east of the present harbor of the city are in the sea.