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Updated: May 17, 2025
Ptolemy Philadelphus also pushed his discoveries by land as far as Meroc: he opened the route between Coptus and Berenice, establishing ports and opening wells; and from these and other circumstances he seems to have been actuated by a stronger wish to extend commerce, and to have formed more plans for this purpose, than any of his successors.
From thence the goods were transported to the city of Coptus, and afterwards to Alexandria, which became rich and famous, through its trade with India, beyond any other city in the world; insomuch that it is asserted that the customs of Alexandria yielded every year to Ptolemy Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, seven millions and a half of gold, though the traffic had then scarcely subsisted in that direction for twenty years . After the reduction of Egypt and Alexandria under the power of the Romans, the customs are said to have advanced to double that amount; and the trade was so great, that 120 ships used to be sent yearly from Myos-Hormos to India.
The route in the time of Ptolemy and his successors was as follows: vessels passed up the Canopic branch of the Nile to Memphis, and thence to Coptus; from Coptus the goods were transported in caravans to Myos Hormos: from this port the vessels sailed for Africa, or Arabia in the month of September, and for India in July.
But that Myos Hormos was the great point of communication with Coptus is evident from the account which Agatharcides gives of the caravan road between these two places.
The goods from Europe, by his orders, were carried up the Nile from Alexandria to the city of Coptus, and conveyed across the desert from thence to the sea-port of Myos-Hormos on the Red-sea . To avoid the excessive heat, the caravans travelled only in the night, directing their course by the stars; and water being very scarce in the desert, they had to carry a sufficient quantity with them for the journey.
Under the successors of Philometor, the trade in the Red Sea languished rather than increased, and the full benefits of it were not reaped till some time after the Roman conquest. Even in the time of Strabo, the bulk of the trade still passed by Coptus to Myos Hormos.
I took it into my head to sail up the Nile to Coptus, and thence pay a visit to the statue of Memnon, and hear the curious sound that proceeds from it at sunrise.
I took it into my head to sail up the Nile to Coptus, and thence pay a visit to the statue of Memnon, and hear the curious sound that proceeds from it at sunrise.
At Nera, in Petræa, the army embarked, and was eleven days in crossing the gulf to Myos Hormos: from this place it traversed the country of the Troglodytes to Coptus, on the Nile. Two years were spent in this unfortunate expedition.
Even so late as the time of Strabo, this road was much more frequented than the road between Coptus and Berenice: of the latter he merely observes, that Philadelphus opened it with his army, established ports, and sunk Wells; whereas he particularly describes the former road, as being seven or eight days' journey, formerly performed on camels in the night, by observation of the stars, and carrying water with them.
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