Berenice Epideires
Ancient city · Djibouti
- Abandoned
- unknown
- Founded
- —
- Population
- —
- Coordinates
- 12.464, 43.319
Why it was abandoned
🏛️ Ancient ruins
Detected automatically from the text: ancient city in Djibouti
History
Berenice Epideires, or "Berenice upon the Neck of Land", was a town on the western shore of the Red Sea. It was located near the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, in modern-day Djibouti a Somali region. The settlement's position on a sandy spit or promontory was the cause of its distinctive appellation. Some authorities, however, attribute the name to the neighborhood of a more considerable town named Deirê on the Ras Siyyan peninsula. Strabo mentions the mangroves that were found there on the coast. Ptolemy II Philadelphus favored the settlement thus naming after his sister Berenice. The inhabitants of the nation were known as the Ichthyophagi who inhabited the country and were recorded to have practiced male circumcision. It is said there is a pillar of Sesostris, on which is inscribed, in hieroglyphics, an account of his passage.