Taposiris Magna

The name Taposiris Magna denotes the name of a city as well as a temple of the same name at the same location established in 278 BC by the Pharaoh Ptolemy II between 280 and 270 BC. According to Plutarch the temple denotes the tomb of Osiris (which is translation of the name). After Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC and established his city (called Alexandro and then Alexandria) the city of Taposiris Magna became a center for religious festival of Khoiak. In 1798 after Napoleon landed in Egypt he conducted a survey of the architecture of the city of Alexandria and Taposiris Magna. After the Ottoman Empire took occupation of the city in 1801, the governor Mohammed Ali decided to rebuild the modern city of Alexandria atop the ruins of the old city. In the twentieth century excavations of the site were started under the Italian Governor Evaristo Breccia. Calisthenis states that Alexander the great visited the city on his way to the Oasis of Siwa, which gives credence to the theory that there must have been a town here in the Hellenistic period.^[2]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taposiris Magna