Busiris (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ) or Aphroditopolis was an ancient city of

Middle Egypt Middle Egypt () is the section of land between Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta) and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, though Middle ...

, in the

Aphroditopolite nome The Aphroditopolite Nome (also Wadjet) was a nome in ancient Egypt. The administrative region was the tenth nome of Upper Egypt. Its capital was Tjebu. During the Ptolemaic period, the nome's capital city was Aphroditopolis. Several governors ...

, on the west bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

, southwest of Aphroditopolis (the modern city of

Atfih Atfih ( ar, أطفيح ' , ''Tpeh or Tpēh'') is a town in Middle Egypt. It was part of the now defunct Helwan Governorate from April 2008 to April 2011, after which it was reincorporated into the Giza Governorate. As of 2001, it has a pop ...

Location

Aphroditopolis is located 38 miles upstream from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, near the ruins of Memphis, Egypt. All that remains of the city is mounds and ruins, which were excavated by Matthew Flinders Petrie.

History

The city was known as ''Tpyhwt'' during

pharaonic Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

times, ''Βούσιρις'' (Busiris) in

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

times, Aphroditopolis during the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

s, Petpeh in Coptic, and since the Islamic conquest as

. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty was the seat of the

Aphroditopolis Nome The Aphroditopolite Nome (also Wadjet) was a nome in ancient Egypt. The administrative region was the tenth nome of Upper Egypt. Its capital was Tjebu. During the Ptolemaic period, the nome's capital city was Aphroditopolis. Several governors ...

and under the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

s was also seat of former

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, in

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Arcadia Aegypti Arcadia or Arcadia Aegypti was a Late Roman province in northern Egypt. It was named for one of the reigning '' Augusti'' of the Roman Empire, Arcadius () of the Theodosian dynasty when it was created in the late 4th century. Its capital was Oxy ...

. Known

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

s include: * Chysaorius of Aphroditopolis * Issac of Aphroditopolis fl.1183 (Latin) * Jacob, Bishop of Aphroditopolis fl.1020s * Father Zosima el-Antony(Orthodox) It remains today a vacant

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

. Aphroditopolis
at GCatholic.org.

References

Richard Talbert Richard John Alexander Talbert (born 26 April 1947) is a British-American contemporary ancient historian and classicist on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Ancien ...

Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World The ''Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World'' is a large-format English language atlas of ancient Europe, Asia, and North Africa, edited by Richard J. A. Talbert. The time period depicted is roughly from archaic Greek civilization (pre- ...

, (), p. 75. Cities in ancient Egypt Former populated places in Egypt {{AncientEgypt-stub