Xois

Xois (, ,  Strabo xvii. p, 802; Ptolemy iv. 5. § 50; , Stephanus of Byzantium 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 Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt 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 Fourteenth Dynasty was based in Avaris in the eastern Delta.

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

Through the Roman and Byzantine era, Xois was the center of a Christian diocese. It remains a vacant titular bishopric from the Roman Empire.

References

 

Category:Cities in ancient Egypt
Category:Ruins in Egypt
Category:Former populated places in Egypt
Category:Nile Delta