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35-635: Rhacotis was located west of the now-silted Canopic branch of the Nile . Unlike ports within the Nile Delta , it was reliably accessible to large ships, and enough water for a city could be supplied by a canal. It is also described as the home of sentinels who protected the Egyptian kingdom from outsiders. The root of the name, qd , means "construct". The prefix r-ꜥ can be used as a derivational morpheme forming nouns of action from infinitives , so

70-411: A collection of volatile city-states in which warfare was common. Uninterrupted conflicts drained all available resources, energies and populations. In this millennium, larger empires succeeded the last, and conquerors grew in stature until the great Sargon of Akkad pushed his empire to the whole of Mesopotamia and beyond. It would not be surpassed in size until Assyrian times 1,500 years later. In

105-469: A great assembly of priests at Canopus passed an honorific decree (the " Decree of Canopus ") that, inter alia, conferred various new titles on the king and his consort, Berenice . Three examples of this decree are now known (plus some fragments), inscribed in Egyptian (in both hieroglyphic and demotic ) and in classical Greek , and they were second only to the more famous Rosetta Stone in providing

140-408: A likely interpretation of the name as a whole is "building site" or "construction in progress". Michel Chaveau of the École pratique des hautes études argues that Rhakotis may simply have been the Egyptian name of the construction site for Alexandria; while John Baines contends that the style of the name and its linguistic context indicate that the name is older. The original city may have included

175-399: A monument to his memory on the shore, around which the town later grew up. There is unlikely to be any connection with " canopy ". A temple to Osiris was built by king Ptolemy III Euergetes , but according to Herodotus, very near to Canopus was an older shrine, a temple of Heracles that served as an asylum for fugitive slaves. Osiris was worshipped at Canopus under a peculiar form: that of

210-566: A state society. World population growth relaxed after the burst due to the Neolithic Revolution . World population was largely stable, at roughly 60 million, with a slow overall growth rate at roughly 0.03% p.a. The Bronze Age began in the Ancient Near East roughly between 3000 BC and 2500 BC. The previous millennium had seen the emergence of advanced, urbanized civilizations, new bronze metallurgy extending

245-508: A vase with a human head. Through an old misunderstanding, the name " canopic jars " was applied by early Egyptologists to the vases with human and animal heads in which the internal organs were placed by the Egyptians after embalming. The ancient city of Canopus is attested to, in part, by the Decree of Canopus . The decree mentions the temple of Canopus and an important rite in which, once

280-495: A year, [an effigy of] Osiris is transported from Heracleium to Canopus. Specifically, the decree says, "...to consecrate the same goddess like Osiris, in the temple of Canopus,...we shall draw along Osiris during the drawing along of the barge to the same temple, at the season of the year, from the temple which is in Heracleium, on the twenty-ninth of the month of Choac". In Ptolemy III Euergetes ' ninth regnal year (239 BC),

315-403: Is established at Rhacotis—the historical site of a temple to Serapis and Isis . Continuing maritime archaeology in the harbour of Alexandria has revealed details of Rhakotis before the arrival of Alexander. In 1916, while preparing construction of a new port, French engineer Gaston Jondet found a sophisticated ancient port facility west of Pharos. Kamal Abu el-Saadat continued research in

350-467: The Notitiae episcopatuum . Two titulars are mentioned by Lequien (II, 415), one in 325, the other in 362. Over time the land around Canopus was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels. The eastern suburbs succumbed to liquefaction of the soil. The western suburbs eventually became the present day Egyptian coastal city of Abu Qir . In 1933, a RAF commander who

385-597: The Near East and the Occident during the 3rd millennium BC, limits were being pushed by architects and rulers. Towards the close of the millennium, Egypt became the stage of the first popular revolution recorded in history. After lengthy wars, the Sumerians recognized the benefits of unification into a stable form of national government and became a relatively peaceful, well-organized, complex technocratic state called

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420-604: The Nile Delta . Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria , around 25 kilometers (16 mi) from the center of that city. Canopus was located on the western bank at the mouth of the westernmost branch of the Delta – known as the Canopic or Heracleotic branch. It belonged to the seventh Egyptian Nome , known as Menelaites , and later as Canopites , after it. It was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before

455-501: The Old Kingdom of Egypt , the Egyptian pyramids were constructed and would remain the tallest and largest human constructions for thousands of years. Also in Egypt, pharaohs began to posture themselves as living gods made of an essence different from that of other human beings. In Europe , which was still largely neolithic during the same period, the builders of megaliths were constructing giant monuments of their own. In

490-479: The "debauchery" that prevailed there. The emperor Hadrian built a villa at Tivoli , 18 miles away from Rome, where he replicated for his enjoyment architectural patterns from all parts of the Roman Empire . One of these (and the most excavated and studied today) was borrowed from Canopus. The Egyptian town of Abu Qir ("Father Cyrus"), honoring two Christian martyrs, is located a few kilometres away from

525-574: The 1960s with a pioneering submarine archaeology campaign which found more ruins and a 25-ton statue fragment. Another campaign began in the 1990s under the supervision of Franck Goddio , finding numerous artifacts including twelve sphinxes, some apparently removed from Heliopolis by the Ptolemies. Wood pilings and planks dated chemically and stratigraphically to c. 400 BC, and potsherds dated to 1000 BC, have been recovered from Alexandria's eastern harbor. Recent chemical analysis of artifacts found in

560-476: The 5th century. Three kilometres (2 mi) east of Canopus was the famous Pharaonic temple of Manouthin, afterwards destroyed by monks, and a church on the same spot dedicated to the Four Evangelists . St. Cyril of Alexandria solemnly transported the relics of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John into the church, which became an important place of pilgrimage . It was here that St. Sophronius of Jerusalem

595-458: The Egyptian civilization before the arrival of Hellenic invaders who eventually established the Ptolemaic kingdom . Canopus, Egypt Canopus ( Arabic : كانوب Kanubu , Coptic : Ⲕⲁⲛⲱⲡⲟⲥ , Kanopos ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Κάνωπος , Kanōpos ), also known as Canobus ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Κάνωβος , Kanōbos ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in

630-517: The Egyptian quarter of the city, located on the West side. Egyptians may have continued to refer to the whole city as Rhakotis, and in some cases resented its existence. Tacitus relates a story of the Egyptian priests that Ptolemy I Soter , seeking a blessing for the construction of Alexandria, received instructions to obtain a certain statue from the temple of "infernal Jupiter" ( Pluto ) in Pontus (on

665-545: The French garrison of 1,800 men was defeated by 20,000 English and Ottoman Turks commanded by Abercromby . Egypt had many martyrs in the Diocletianic Persecution , among others St. Athanasia with her three daughters, and St. Cyrus and John . There was here a monastery called Metanoia, founded by monks from Tabennisi , where many a patriarch of Alexandria took shelter during the religious quarrels of

700-403: The foundation of Alexandria, along with Naucratis and Heracleion . Its ruins lie near the present Egyptian town of Abu Qir . Land in the area of Canopus was subject to rising sea levels, earthquakes, tsunamis, and large parts of it seem to have succumbed to liquefaction sometime at the end of the 2nd century BC. The eastern suburbs of Canopus collapsed, their remains being today submerged in

735-473: The harbor has discovered high levels of lead in the third millennium BC , peaking circa the turn of the 23rd century BC ( Old Kingdom ), and again near the turn of the first millennium BC ( Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties), as well as in the Hellenic era following the conquest of Alexander. They also suggest an expansive trade network including metal imports from Cyprus and Turkey . Some or all of

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770-632: The home of Egyptian sentinels guarding the Nile. Pliny the Elder mentions Rhacotes as the former name of the site of Alexandria. Alexandria was planned by Dinocrates , an experienced Greek architect and city planner from Rhodes , who modeled the new city after the Hellenistic architectural style popular in the Greek world at the time. The existing small village of Rhacotis, then a fishing port, became

805-491: The island of Pharos , a harbor mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as the kingdom of Proteus . Plutarch writes that this reference influenced Alexander in his decision to found a new capital at the harbor of Pharos. The earliest text from Alexandria, a hieroglyphic " satrap " stela from the month of Thout in 311 BC, refers to R-qd as the preceding name of the city. Strabo , in his description of Alexandria, describes Rhacotis as

840-576: The key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language. This was the earliest of the series of bilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", also known as the Ptolemaic Decrees . There are three such Decrees altogether. The town had a large trade in henna . In Roman times , the town was notorious for its dissoluteness. Seneca wrote of the luxury and vice of Canopus, though he also mentioned that "Canopus does not keep any man from living simply". Juvenal 's Satire VI referred to

875-478: The lost city of Canopus after excavations. Underwater archaeology at the eastern portion of Canopus, 16 mi (26 km) northeast of Alexandria in Abu Qir Bay, has provided numerous important discoveries including the following: Attribution: 31°18′N 30°5′E  /  31.300°N 30.083°E  / 31.300; 30.083 Third millennium BC The 3rd millennium BC spanned

910-464: The name derives from the Latinized form used under Roman rule . Canopus was the site of a temple to the Egyptian god Serapis . The name of Canopus appears in the first half of the 6th century BC in a poem by Solon . Early Egyptological excavations some 2 or 3 km from the area known today as Abu Qir have revealed extensive traces of the city with its quays, and granite monuments with

945-403: The name of Ramesses II , but they may have been brought in for the adornment of the place at a later date. The exact date of the foundation of Canopus is unknown, but Herodotus refers to it as an ancient port. Homeric myth claims that it was founded by Menelaus , and named after Canopus , the pilot of his ship, who died there after being bitten by a serpent. Legend describes how Menelaus built

980-463: The northern coast of modern Turkey , along the Black Sea ). First they visit the oracle Pythia at Delphi , who confirms they are to remove the statue, but not its female companion ( Proserpina ). When they reach King Scydrothemis at Sinope , they find him reluctant to part with the statue. The god then leaves the temple of his own will and conveys the party back to Alexandria, where a new temple

1015-573: The productivity of agricultural work, and highly developed ways of communication in the form of writing . In the 3rd millennium BC, the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power. Along with this came the first appearances of monumental architecture, imperialism , organized absolutism and internal revolution. The civilizations of Sumer and Akkad in Mesopotamia became

1050-521: The remains of Rhacotis may lie beneath the densely populated modern city of Alexandria, and thus remain off limits to archaeologists. No attempts to date have discovered remains of an early city in the Alexandrine neighborhood with the same name. The importance of Rhacotis remains a matter of debate. If the Rhacotis was indeed no more than a building yard, it may have been an inconsequential part of

1085-511: The ruins of Canopus. It is a town (around 1900 with 1000 inhabitants), at the end of a little peninsula north-east of Alexandria. It has a trade in quails , which are caught in nets hung along the shore. Off Aboukir on 1 August 1798, the French Mediterranean fleet was destroyed within the roads by British Admiral Horatio Nelson . On 25 July 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed there a Turkish army 18,000 strong; and on 8 March 1801,

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1120-549: The sea, with the western suburbs being buried beneath the modern coastal city of Abu Qir . The settlement's Egyptian name was written in Demotic as [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] ( pr-gwṱ , sometimes romanized Peguat or Pikuat). The Greeks called it Canopus ( Κάνωπος , Kánōpos ) after a legendary commander of the era of the Trojan War supposedly buried there. The English form of

1155-661: The years 3000 to 2001 BC. This period of time corresponds to the Early to Middle Bronze Age , characterized by the early empires in the Ancient Near East . In Ancient Egypt , the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Old Kingdom . In Mesopotamia, the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Akkadian Empire . In what is now Northwest India and Pakistan, the Indus Valley civilization developed

1190-484: Was flying over Abu Qir Bay thought he was seeing ruins in the bay and informed Egyptian scholar Prince Omar Toussoun who subsequently undertook archaeological investigations and with the help of fishermen found an archeological site 1,8 km from shore. Since 1992, the IEASM led by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio has been surveying the Abu Qir Bay. The undersea ruins were eventually identified as

1225-475: Was healed of an ophthalmy that had been declared incurable by the physicians (610–619), whereupon he wrote the panegyric of the two saints with a compilation of seventy miracles worked in their sanctuary ( Migne , Patrologia Graeca , LXXXVII, 3379–676) Canopus formed, with Menelaus and Schedia, a suffragan see subject to Alexandria in the Roman province of Aegyptus Prima ; it is usually called Schedia in

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