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Updated: May 3, 2025
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.
In his description of the coast between Myos Hormos and Ptolemais, he points out a bay, which, both from the identity of the name, and the circumstances respecting it which he narrates, undoubtedly is the Foul Bay of the moderns.
We have already mentioned, that Myos Hormos was fixed on by Ptolemy Philadelphus, in preference to Arsinoe, because the navigation of the western part of the Red Sea, on which the latter was placed, was intricate and tedious.
It is to be supposed, that every thing relating to the geography, navigation, and commerce of the Red Sea, from Myos Hormos to Aduli, on the western side, and Moosa, on the eastern side of it, was well known to the merchants of Egypt, as the author of the Periplus gives no circumstantial account of any port, till he arrives at these places.
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.
That Ptolemy Philadelphus was extremely desirous to improve the navigation of the Red Sea, is evident from his having built Myos Hormos, or rather improved it, because it was more convenient than Arsinoe, on account of the difficulty of navigating the western extremity of that sea: he afterwards fixed on Berenice in preference to Myos Hormos, when the navigation and commerce on this sea was extended and improved, since Berenice being lower down, the navigation towards the straits was shorter, as well as attended with fewer difficulties and dangers.
If so, he will pass up the Nile as far as Coptos, then take either the canal or the caravan route to Myos Hormos on the Red Sea, and thence find ship for India, with a reasonable prospect if he escapes the Arab pirates of completing his business and returning home in about six months.
He notices Myos Hormos, but not Berenice; he has even mentioned the islands at the straits of Babelmandeb, and the prodigies which in his time, and much later, were supposed to lie beyond them.
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.
This canal, however, was never completed; probably on account of the tedious and difficult navigation towards the northern extremity of the Red Sea. He therefore altered his plan, and instead of Arsinoe fixed on Myos Hormos, as the port from which the navigation to India should commence.
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