Taposiris Magna

Common card · No. 293999

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. Procopius recorded that it was said to be the burial site of Osiris. 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.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Einsamer Schütze, CC BY-SA 3.0