Naucratis
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Naucratis or Naukratis, (Template:Lang-el), loosely translated as "(the city that wields) power over ships" (Piemro in Egyptian, now Kom Gieif), was a city of Ancient Egypt, on the Canopic branch of the Nile river, 45 mi (72 km) SE of the open sea and the later capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alexandria. It was the first and, for much of its early history, the only permanent Greek colony in Egypt; acting as a symbiotic nexus for the interchange of Greek and Egyptian art and culture.
The modern site of the city has become an archaeological find of the highest significance and the source of not only many beautiful objects of art now gracing the museums of the world but also an important source of some of the earliest Greek writing in existence, provided by the inscriptions on its pottery.
