Myos Hormos ( gr, Μυὸς Ὅρμος "Mouse's Haven") was a

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

port constructed by the

Ptolemies The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic ...

around the 3rd century BC. Following excavations carried out recently by David Peacock and Lucy Blue of the University of Southampton, it is thought to have been located on the present-day site of Quseir al-Quadim (old Quseir), eight kilometres north of the modern town of

El Qoseir El QoseirAlso spelled ''Kosseir'', ''Al Qusair'', ''El Quseir'', ''Quseir'', ''Qusseir'' or ''Qosseir''. ( ar, القصير, el-Qoṣēr, ) is a city in eastern Egypt, located on the Red Sea coast. Populated for approximately 5,000 years, its an ...

in Egypt.

History

Myos Hormos, after the Ptolemies, was with Berenice (further south on the

coast) one of the two main ports in

Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...

for trade with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and probably

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Some of its main destinations were the

Indus delta The Indus River Delta ( ur, سندھ ڈیلٹا, sd, سنڌو ٽِڪور), forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea, mostly in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India. The delta ...

Muziris Muziris ( grc, Μουζιρίς, Old Malayalam: ''Muciri'' or ''Muciripattanam'' possibly identical with the medieval ''Muyirikode'') was an ancient harbour and an urban centre on the Malabar Coast. Muziris found mention in the ''Periplus of ...

and the

Kathiawar Kathiawar () is a peninsula, near the far north of India's west coast, of about bordering the Arabian Sea. It is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest and by the Gulf of Khambhat (Gulf of Cambay) in the east. In the northeast, i ...

peninsula in

. The coastal trade from Myos Hormos and Berenice along the coast of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

is described in the anonymous 1st century AD handbook

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...

first comes Egypt's port of Myos Hormos, and beyond it, after a sail of 1800 stades to the right, Berenice. The ports of both are bays on the Red Sea on the edge of Egypt.

it was one of the main trading centers on the

. According to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

(II.5.12), by the time of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India: The port of Myos Hormos was connected to the Nile valley and Memphis by a Roman road, built in the 1st century. After the 4th century the port was abandoned, because of the

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

crisis and the end of the trade between

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and India. Only in the 17th century the port started to get again some importance, mainly because of holy travel from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

. The city of old Qusair is the actual Myos Hormos.Articles and photos of Myos Hormos and actual Old Qusair (in Italian)
/ref> Periplous of the Erythraean Sea

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

* G.W.B. Huntingford. ''The Ethnology and History of the Area Covered by the Periplus'' in Huntingford ed., "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" (London, 1980).

History

References

Bibliography

External links

See also