Egypt under the Lagide rulers: maritime commerce

In Chapter 3, devoted to Egypt of the pharaohs, we mentioned several projects that rep­resented completion or termination of efforts that the Ptolemites had begun earlier. In their development of commerce with distant partners in Arabia, and even as far as India according to Strabo, the Ptolemites needed to develop the infrastructure to access the Red Sea and to launch a fleet for this purpose. Necho’s canal, linking the pelusiac branch of the Nile with the Gulf of Suez, passing through Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, is maintained or brought back into service. As we have seen in Chapter 3, a device (a single gate?) making it possible to accommodate water-level changes in the Gulf of Suez is installed. A new city, Arisone,[181] named for the sister-spouse of Ptolemy II Philadelph, is founded at the outlet of the canal. A new port on the Red Sea is con­structed at about the latitude of Aswan, 320 km southeast of the ancient Egyptian port of Gawasis;[182] this port, called Berenice after the name of the mother of Ptolemy II, is con­nected by a trail to the region of Edfou.