Coptos

Coptos is the old name of the town of Qift, located in the fifth names High-Egypt, between Thèbes and Qena. It was called also Gebtou . It was an important city from the administrative, religious and commercial point of view. It was also the support of the mines of the neighbouring desert during and S. Its guardian divinities were Min like Isis and Horus the Child. Under, Coptos was supplanted politically by Thèbes.

Coptos had a temple devoted to Min and a sanctuary with Geb. According to the dires of Plutarque, Isis would have learned in this city death from his/her brother and husband Osiris, this is why Coptos were supposed to shelter a tomb containing one of the sixteen members of Osiris.

Coptos was the starting point of two of the largest circuits of caravans making it possible to join the coasts of the Red Sea (one by the port Tââou-Myoshormos, the other more in the south by the port of Shashirît-Berenice). At the time of the Pharaon S, the whole of the trade passed by these two roads; under the Roman Ptolémées, and the Byzantine , the merchants followed these same ways to trade with Zanzibar, the Arabia, the India and Is.

Coptos was very prosperous under the dynasty of the Antonins; it was the base camp of the Cyrenaica Legion, or at least that of one of its units. After a rebellion and a long seat, it was taken in 292 by Dioclétien and was almost destroyed. It found its power however quickly. At the 6th century, it was called Justinianopolis.

Coptos was the place of an Australian archaeological great project between 2000 and 2003.

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