ⲕⲁⲛⲱⲡⲟⲥ | |
 | |
  Canopus Shown within Egypt | |
| Alternative name | ⲕⲁⲛⲱⲡⲟⲥ |
|---|---|
| Location | Alexandria Governorate,Egypt |
| Region | Lower Egypt |
Canopus (Arabic:كانوبKanubu,Coptic:Ⲕⲁⲛⲱⲡⲟⲥ,Kanopos;Ancient Greek:Κάνωπος,Kanōpos), also known asCanobus (Ancient Greek:Κάνωβος,Kanōbos),[1] was anancient Egyptian coastal town, located in theNile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-dayAlexandria, 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 EgyptianNome, known asMenelaites, and later asCanopites, after it. It was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria, along withNaucratis andHeracleion. Its ruins lie near the present Egyptian town ofAbu 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,[2] their remains being today submerged in the sea, with the western suburbs being buried beneath the modern coastal city ofAbu Qir.
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| pgwꜣt — Canopus (Decree of Canopus)[3] inhieroglyphs | |||||
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| Era:Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) | |||||
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| pngwꜣt — Canopus (Decree of Canopus)[4] inhieroglyphs | ||||||||
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| Era:Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) | ||||||||
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| prgwꜣt — Canopus (Decree of Canopus)[4] inhieroglyphs | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Era:Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) | ||||||||
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| Genp — Canopus[5] inhieroglyphs | |||
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| Era:Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) | |||
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| gꜣwtj — Canopus[6] inhieroglyphs | |||||
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| Era:Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) | |||||
The settlement'sEgyptian name was written inDemotic as
(pr-gwṱ, sometimes romanized Peguat or Pikuat).[7][8] The Greeks called it Canopus (Κάνωπος,Kánōpos) after alegendary commander of the era of theTrojan War supposedly buried there. The English form of the name derives from theLatinized form used underRoman rule.
Canopus was the site of a temple to theEgyptian godSerapis.[1]
The name of Canopus appears in the first half of the 6th century BC in a poem bySolon.[9] EarlyEgyptological excavations some 2 or 3 km from the area known today asAbu Qir have revealed extensive traces of the city with its quays, and granite monuments with the name ofRamesses 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, butHerodotus refers to it as an ancient port. Homeric myth claims that it was founded byMenelaus, and named afterCanopus, the pilot of his ship, who died there after being bitten by a serpent.[n 1] Legend describes how Menelaus built 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 toOsiris was built by kingPtolemy III Euergetes, but according to Herodotus, very near to Canopus was an older shrine,[n 2] a temple ofHeracles that served as an asylum for fugitive slaves. Osiris was worshipped at Canopus under a peculiar form: that of a vase with a human head. Through an old misunderstanding, the name "canopic jars" was applied by earlyEgyptologists 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 theDecree of Canopus. The decree mentions the temple of Canopus and an important rite in which, once a year, [an effigy of] Osiris is transported fromHeracleium 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".[10]
InPtolemy III Euergetes' ninth regnal year (239 BC), 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 inEgyptian (in bothhieroglyphic anddemotic) and in classicalGreek, and they were second only to the more famousRosetta Stone in providing the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language. This was the earliest of the series ofbilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", also known as thePtolemaic Decrees. There are three such Decrees altogether.[11]
The town had a large trade inhenna (a plant-based dye).[1]
InRoman times, the town was notorious for its dissoluteness.[1]Seneca wrote of the luxury and vice of Canopus, though he also mentioned that "Canopus does not keep any man from living simply".[12]Juvenal'sSatire VI referred to the "debauchery" that prevailed there.[13] The emperorHadrian built avilla atTivoli, 18 miles away from Rome, where he replicated for his enjoyment architectural patterns from all parts of theRoman Empire. One of these (and the most excavated and studied today) was borrowed from Canopus.[11]
The Egyptian town ofAbu Qir ("Father Cyrus"), honoring two Christian martyrs, is located a few kilometres away from 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 inquails, 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 AdmiralHoratio Nelson. On 25 July 1799,Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed there a Turkish army 18,000 strong; and on 8 March 1801, the French garrison of 1,800 menwas defeated by 20,000 English and Ottoman Turks commanded byAbercromby.[11]
Egypt had many martyrs in theDiocletianic Persecution, among others St.Athanasia with her three daughters, and St.Cyrus and John. There was here a monastery called Metanoia, founded by monks fromTabennisi, where many apatriarch of Alexandria took shelter during the religious quarrels of 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 theFour Evangelists. St.Cyril of Alexandria solemnly transported the relics of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John into the church, which became an important place ofpilgrimage. It was here that St.Sophronius of Jerusalem was healed of anophthalmy that had been declared incurable by the physicians (610–619), whereupon he wrote thepanegyric 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, asuffragansee subject to Alexandria in theRoman province ofAegyptus Prima; it is usually calledSchedia in theNotitiae episcopatuum. Twotitulars are mentioned byLequien (II, 415), one in 325, the other in 362.[8]
Over time the land around Canopus was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels.[14] The eastern suburbs succumbed to liquefaction of the soil.[2] The western suburbs eventually became the present day Egyptian coastal city ofAbu Qir.[14]
In 1933, aRAF commander who was flying overAbu Qir Bay thought he was seeing ruins in the bay and informed Egyptian scholarPrince Omar Toussoun[15] who subsequently undertook archaeological investigations and with the help of fishermen found an archeological site 1,8 km from shore.[16]
Since 1992, theIEASM led by Frenchunderwater archaeologistFranck Goddio has been surveying the Abu Qir Bay.[17][18] The undersea ruins were eventually identified as the lost city of Canopus after excavations.[19]
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:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Vailhé, Siméon (1908). "Canopus". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company..