Leontopolis was an ancient Egyptian city located in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...

. It served as a provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric. The archaeological site and settlement are known today as Kafr Al Muqdam.

Name

Known most popularly in the modern era and to scholarship by its traditional

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 ...

name "Leontopolis" (literally, "city of lions"), or Leonto , ("lion"), the demographic makeup of the city varied culturally and linguistically over its long history, and the Greek name was progressively used more and more over the native

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

Taremu ("Land of Fish"). After the annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt as a

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 ...

, the city retained the Greek name, and was referred to in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

sources as the

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

Leontos, though the Egyptian name still lingered among primary speakers of Coptic Egyptian into the post-classical period. Today, the site itself is referred to in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

as Tell el-Muqdam ("mound of the city").

History

The city is located in the central part of the

region. It was the capital of the 11th nome of

(the Leontopolite nome) and was probably the centre of

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 ...

power under the

23rd dynasty The Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXIII, alternatively 23rd Dynasty or Dynasty 23) is usually classified as the third dynasty of the ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period. This dynasty consisted of a number of Meshwesh ki ...

. In his conquest-stela found at the fourth Nile Cataract at

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal ( ar, جبل بركل) is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 1 ...

Piye Piye (once transliterated as Pankhy or Piankhi; d. 714 BC) was an ancient Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled Egypt from 744–714 BC. He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, modern-day Sudan. ...

writes about his conquest over Iuput II. who ruled over Leontopolis.

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 see ...

is the earliest writer who mentions either the nome, or its chief town: and it was probably of comparatively recent origin or importance. The Greek name of this city means "City of Lions", given on account of the presence of temples to the lioness goddesses Bast and

Sekhmet In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. Sekhmet is a solar de ...

, and their son,

Maahes Maahes (also spelled in Greek: Mihos, Miysis, Mios, Maihes, or Mahes) (Greek: Μαχές, Μιχός, Μίυσις, Μίος, or Μάιχες) was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, whose name means "he who is true beside her". He was se ...

, the lion prince. Live lions were kept at the temples during the time of the Greek occupation. It became the capital of the

Augustamnica Secunda ''Augustamnica'' ( Latin) or ''Augoustamnike'' ( Greek) was a Roman province of Egypt created during the 5th century and was part of the Diocese of Oriens first and then of the Diocese of Egypt, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 640s. ...

Ecclesiastical history

As provincial capital it also was a Metropolitan archbishopric, known as Leontopolis in Augustamnica, which was to fade. *

Michel Le Quien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. He studied at Plessis College, Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made his pro ...

lists Theodotus at the second Council of Constantinople in 553AD. and * Metrodorus of Leontopolis signed the cannon of the

Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

Catholic Titular see

The diocese was restored nominally in the 18th century, as

titular bishopric 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 archbish ...

, erroneously called Leontopolis in Bithynia, and as such had the following incumbents of fitting episcopal (lowest) rank : * Elias Daniel von Sommerfeld (1714.01.26 – 1742.07.26) * Joaquim de Nossa Senhora de Nazareth Oliveira e Abreu,

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...

(O.F.M.) (1815.09.04 – 1819.08.23) * Alexander Dobrzański (1819.12.17 – 1831?) * Ludwig Forwerk (1854.07.11 – 1875.01.08) It was promoted circa 1880 to

titular archbishopric 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 archbish ...

of Metropolitan rank; it was renamed in 1925 Leontopolis, in 1933 Leontopolis in Augustamnica. It has had the following incumbents, of fitting (Metropolitan? archiepiscopal) rank : * Jean-Pierre-François Laforce-Langevin (1891.02.06 – 1892.01.26) * Dominique-Clément-Marie Soulé (1893.03.21 – 1919.04.21) *

Andrea Cassulo Andrea Cassulo (30 November 1869 – 9 January 1952) was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and a representative of the Holy See in Egypt, Canada, Romania and Turkey from 1921 to 1952. Biography He was born in Castelletto d'Orba in 1869 and ...

(1921.01.24 – 1952.01.09) * Terence Bernard McGuire (1953.11.16 – 1957.07.04) * Angelo Ficarra (1957.08.02 – 1959.06.01) * Cornelius Bronsveld,

White Fathers The White Fathers (french: Pères Blancs), officially the Missionaries of Africa ( la, Missionarii Africae) abbreviated MAfr), are a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right (for Men) Founded in 1868 by then Ar ...

(M. Afr.) (1959.12.21 – 1970.11.30)

Greek Orthodox Titular See

*Dionysios (Hatzivasiliou) 1997-2012 *Gabriel of Leontopolis 2012 - Present

Identification

Most scholars today agree that Leontopolis is located at Tell al Muqdam, at latitude 30° 45′ North. Researchers were long divided as to the real site of Leontopolis. According to

D'Anville Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...

(1697–1782), its ruins were covered by a

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

called ''Tel-Essabè'' (Tel es-sab`), or the "Lion's Hill". Jomard (1777–1862), on the other hand, maintained that some

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

near the village of ''El-Mengaleh'' in the Delta, represent the ancient Leontopolis, and this supposition agrees better with the account of the town given by

Xenophon of Ephesus Xenophon of Ephesus ( el, Ξενοφῶν ὁ Εφέσιος; fl. 2nd century – 3rd century AD) was a Greek writer.''Suda'' ξ 50 His surviving work is the '' Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes'', one of the earliest novels as well as ...

.''Ephesiaca'', iv. p. 280, ed. Bipont W. Smith (1813–1893) locates the city at latitude 30° 6′ North, which is considerably further south than the actual site.

Notes

Sources and external links

* ;Printed sources *

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 Ancient ...

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 Talbert, Richard J. A. Talbert. The time period depicted is roughly from Archaic Greece, ...

, (), p. 74. * Hans Bonnet: ''Leontopolis (2.)'', in: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte'', Hamburg 2000 S. 423. * W. M. Flinders Petrie: ''Hyksos and Israelite Cities'', London 1906. * Max Küchler: ''Leontopolis'' in: ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft.'' (RGG) 4. Auflage, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, S. 274. ;External links
Leontopolis
article at JewishEncyclopedia.com

* {{s-end Populated places established in the 1st millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 1st millennium Archaeological sites in Egypt Cities in ancient Egypt Catholic titular sees in Africa Former populated places in Egypt Jewish Ptolemaic history Nile Delta Roman sites in Egypt Tells (archaeology) Former capitals of Egypt