Naukratis (Kom Gi’eif)
Site of a Greek settlement on the canopic branch of the Nile in the
Western Delta. It was located only about 16 km from Sais, the capital of the 26th-Dynasty
rulers, under whom Naukratis was reorganized. The modern name of the site
itself is Kom Gi’eif, although the ancient name appears to have survived in the
name of the nearby village of el-Niqrash.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the site was given to the
Greeks by Ahmose II (570-526 BC), along with a monopoly on seaborn trade to Egypt,
although it is more likely that Ahmose II simply reorganized an existing settlement
of foreigners, giving them new trading privileges. It is clear from such
finds as Corinthian ‘transitional’ pottery that the Greek settlement at the
site dates back to c. 630 BC. (Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary
of Ancient Egypt [New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995], 197, emphasis in
bold added)
Further Reading: