Taposiris Magna

Taposiris Magna, also known as Tapusir Magna, is a city established by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280 and 270 BC. The name means "great tomb of Osiris", which Plutarch identifies with an Egyptian temple in the city. Taposiris Magna lies about 30 miles west of Alexandria in the Egyptian coastal town of Borg El Arab.

During the Ptolemaic period, Taposiris Magna became a center for the religious festival of Khoiak. Napoleon arrived in Egypt during 1798 and French scientists subsequently conducted a survey of the architecture of the city published in the Description de l'Égypte.

In the twentieth century, excavations of the site were started under the Italian Evaristo Breccia. The ancient Greek historian Callisthenes states that Alexander the Great visited the city on his way to Siwa Oasis, which gives credence to the theory that there must have been a town there in the Hellenistic period.

Role in trade

The city stood on the navigable arm of the now dried-out bed of the ancient Lake Mariout. The size of the lake raises the possibility that the harbor played a role in the trade between Egypt and Libya. Traders from the west could use water transportation to the harbor and then take a caravan route. Similarly, trade from Libya could be shipped aboard boats to Taposiris and transported to interior cities of Egypt, however this theory has its critics. The wine produced in this part of Egypt was famous during this ancient time.

The temple and the tower

Atop the Taenia ridge, an outcropping of limestone that separates the sea from Lake Maerotis, stand two ancient monuments that were partly restored in the 1930s. One is a tower that has been used as a guide in the reconstruction of the lighthouse of Alexandria and the other is the remains of a temple of Osiris that is believed to be the last resting place of Cleopatra.

In the most scholarly study of the tower conducted by 1974, it was concluded that "the Tower of Abusir" was definitely not a lighthouse nor even a watchtower. It probably was constructed during the Ptolemaic reign after the Pharos lighthouse was built and was a funerary monument.