Settlements > Thmuis

Thmuis

Background

Thmuis (/ˈθmjuː.ᵻs/; Greek: Θμοῦις; Arabic: Tell El-Timai‎‎) is a city in Lower Egypt, located on the canal east of the Nile, between its Tanitic and Mendesian branches. During the Ptolemaic period, Thmuis succeeded Djedet as the capital of Lower Egypt's 16th nome of Kha (Herodotus (II, 166)). The two cities are only several hundred meters apart. Ptolemy also states that the city was the capital of the Mendesian nome.

Thmuis was an episcopal see in the Roman province of Augustamnica Prima, suffragan of Pelusium. Today it is part of the Coptic Holy Metropolitanate of Beheira (Thmuis & Hermopolis Parva), Mariout (Mariotis), Marsa Matruh (Antiphrae & Paractorium), Libya (Livis) and Pentapolis (Cyrenaica).

In the fourth century it was still an important Roman city, having its own administration and being exempt from the jurisdiction of the Prefect of Alexandria. It was in existence at the time of the Arab invasion in 641 AD, and was later called Al-Mourad or "Al-Mouradeh"; it must have disappeared after the Turkish conquest.

Its ruins are at Tell El-Timai, about five miles north-west of Sinbellawein, a station on the railway from Zagazig to Mansourah in the central Delta.

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