Xois

File:Description de l'univers (1683) (14783850642).jpg

Map showing Xios (top center).

Xois (Greek: Ξόις, Strabo xvii. p, 802; Ptol. iv. 5. § 50; Ξόης, Steph. B. s. v.) was a town of great antiquity and considerable size. It was located nearly in the center of the Nile Delta in Egypt, and is identified as the ancient Egyptian city of Khasut (Khaset or Sakha).

History

Xois sat upon an island formed by the Sebennytic and Phatnitic branches of the Nile. It belonged to the Sebennytic Nome, and later was the capital of its own nome, the Xoite nome.

The 14th dynasty consisted, according to Manetho, of 76 Xoite kings. This dynasty immediately preceded that of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. It seems possible, therefore, that Xois, from its strong position among the marshes of the Nile Delta formed by the intersecting branches of the river, could have held out during the occupation of the Delta by the Hyksos, or at least compromised with the invaders by paying them tribute. This hypothesis however, is not shared by most egyptologists today who believe that the 14th dynasty was based in Avaris in the eastern delta.

By some geographers it is supposed to be the Papremis of Herodotus (ii. 59, iii. 12). Champollion (l'Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. ii. p. 214) identified Xois's remains at modern-day Sakha (Sakkra), which is the Arabic synonym of the Coptic Xeos and of the old Egyptian Skhoo (Niebuhr, Travels, vol. i. p. 75). The road from Tamiathis to Memphis passed through Xois.

Xios is also home to a vacant ancient Christian titular Bishopric, from the Roman era.

References

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