Berenice Troglodytica, also called Berenike (Greek: ) or Baranis, is an ancient seaport of Egypt on the western shore of the Red Sea. It is situated about 825 km south of Suez, 260 km east of Aswan in Upper Egypt and 140 km south of Marsa Alam. It was founded in 275 BCE by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE), who named it after his mother, Berenice I of Egypt.
A high mountain range runs along the African coast and separates the Nile Valley from the Red Sea; Berenice was sited upon a narrow rim of shore between the mountains and the Red Sea, at the head of the Sinus Immundus, a south-facing bay sheltered on the north by a high peninsula then called Lepte Extrema, and to the south by a chain of small islands scattered across the mouth of the bay. One of them was called the Island of Ophiodes () and was one of a few sources of gemstones local to Berenice. The harbour is marginal, but was improved by engineering.
Etymology
The name Troglodytica refers to the native people of the region, the "Troglodytai" or "cave dwellers". Although the name is attested by several ancient writers, the more ancient Ptolemaic inscriptions read Trogodytai, which Huntingford (1980) speculated could be derived from the same root as Tuareg. It is possible that later copyists confused this name with the more common term Troglodytai.
History
Ptolemaic era
Berenice was prosperous and quite famous in antiquity. The city is noted by most ancient geographers, including Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Stephanus of Byzantium. Its prosperity after the third century was mostly due to three reasons: patronage by the Ptolemaic kings safe anchorage being at the eastern terminus of the main road from Upper Egypt. The other terminus of that road is Coptos (now Qift), an Egyptian city on the Nile, which made Berenice and Myos Hormos the two main shipping centers for trade between Aethiopia and Egypt on the one hand, and Syria, Tamilakkam, and Tamraparni (ancient Sri Lanka) on the other. The road across the desert from Coptos was 258 Roman miles long, or 11 days' journey. Watering stations (Greek hydreumata, see Hadhramaut) were built along the road; the wells and resting places for caravans are listed by Pliny, and in the Itineraries.
In the 19th century Belzoni found traces of several of the watering stations.
Berenice was able to generate some commerce locally: The mines of Gebel Zabara and Wadi Sikait in the adjacent mountains, and the island of Ophiodes (now Zabargad Island) in the mouth of Berenice's harbor, were rich sources of gemstones (peridot?) at that time called “topaz” and “emerald”.
Imperial Roman era
From the 1st century BCE until the 2nd century CE, Berenice was one of the critical way-stations for trade between India, Sri Lanka, Arabia, and Upper Egypt. It was connected to Antinoöpolis on the River Nile in Lower Egypt by the Via Hadriana in 137 CE.
The trade from Berenice along the Red Sea coast is described in the 1st century CE travelogue Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written by a Greek merchant based in Alexandria. The Periplus states that "on the right-hand coast next below Berenice is the country of the Berbers", thereby placing Berenice Troglodytica just north of ancient Barbara.
In the 4th century Berenice had again become an active port. Under the Roman administration, Berenice itself formed an entire district with its own prefect, who was called Praefectus Berenicidis, or P. montis Berenicidis.
Despite its favorable location, after the 6th century the port was abandoned and the bay has since nearly filled with sediment; it has a sand-bar at its entrance that can only be crossed by shallow-draft boats. The gemsites on Zabargad Island are flooded.
19th century archaeology
In 1818, the ruins of Berenice were identified by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, confirming an earlier opinion of d'Anville. Belzoni wrote that the city measured from north to south, and from east to west. He estimated the ancient population at 10,000. Since then, several excavations have been undertaken.
The most important ruin is a temple; the remnants of its sculptures and inscriptions preserve the name of Tiberius and the head magistrate of the Jews in Alexandria under Ptolemaic and Roman rule. Excavations have also produced small figures of many deities, some obscure, including a (goddess?) Alabarch or Arabarch.
The temple is Egyptian style, made of sandstone and a soft calcareous stone. It is long, and wide. A portion of its walls are sculptured with well-executed basso relieves, of Greek workmanship; occasionally the walls are decorated with hieroglyphics.