Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "COPTOS Ancient city EGYPT" .
COPTOS (Ancient city) EGYPT
Coptos (Koptos or Koptis, Ptol. iv. 5. § 73; Kopto, Plut. de Is. et
Osir. c. 14), in hieroglyphics Kobto, the modern Kouft or Keft, was the principal
city of the nome Coptites in the Upper Thebaid, the Thebais Secunda of the Itineraries.
It was situated in lat. 26° N., on the right bank of the Nile, and about a mile
in distance from the river. In the immediate neighbourhood of Coptos a valley
opened to the south-east leading to the porphyry-quarries in the Arabian desert,
and to Berenice (Cosseir) on the Red Sea. When in B.C. 266, Ptolemy Philadelphus
constructed the town and harbour of Berenice, he erected also four public inns
or watering places between his new city and Coptos, in order that the caravans
might have convenient halting-places during their twelve days' journey through
the eastern desert. From this epoch Coptos was enriched by the active commerce
between Libya and Egypt, on the one part, and Arabia and India on the other, and
the city continued to flourish, until it was nearly destroyed by the emperor Diocletian
in A.D. 292. It survived however this calamity; and remained a considerable place
down to the latest period of the Roman empire. In the reign of Justinian, in the
first half of the 7th century A. D., Coptos for a brief interval bore the name
of Justinianopolis. (Notit. Eccles.) Coptos being comparatively a modern town
of the Thebaid possesses no monuments of the Pharaonic era. In the church, however,
which the Christian population of the present Kouft have built, are imbedded stones
inscribed with the ovals of Thothmes III. and Nectanebus. (Wilkinson. Mod. Egypt
and Thebes, ii. p. 123.) Neither, as might have been expected from its origin,
does it exhibit any remarkable Hellenic remains. The principal objects of interest
there are the ruins of Roman buildings. The neighbouring hills contained emeralds
and a few other precious stones: and the vineyards produced a thin and not much
esteemed wine, which, however, from its lightness of body was administered in
febrile disorders. (Aelian, H. An. vii. 18; Athen. i. p. 33; Plin. N. H. xxxvii.
17, 18, 55, 56.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Koptos. A city of the Thebais or Upper Egypt, lying a little to the east of the Nile, some distance below Thebes. Under the Ptolemies it occupied an important commercial position. In 1894 excavations conducted on its site by Mr. Petrie brought to light many valuable remains of the earliest Egyptian art.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
