ABÛ [Sdot ]IR
Egypt.
The Arabic name of several
sites connected in the past with the cult of Osiris:
1) Abû [Sdot ]ir Bana, identified with Busiris (
Hdt. 2.59,
61) and Cynopolis (
Strab. 17.1.19), lies in the Delta S
of modern Samannud.
2) Abû [Sdot ]ir El-Malaq, in the vicinity of the Faiyum
district and N of modern Ihnasia el-Medina. This, the
Heracleopolis Magna of Strabo (
17.1.39) is the site of
a Graeco-Roman necropolis.
3) Abû [Sdot ]ir, near the Giza Pyramids, is the Busiris of
Pliny (
36.12.76), famous as a cult center. The latest
tombs date from the Ptolemaic period.
4) Abû [Sdot ](uwe)ir, a short distance W of Ismailia on
the Suez Canal, was probably the site of the Egyptian
city of Pithom, capital of the seventh nome of Lower
Egypt, or Patumus (
Hdt. 11.158), where a stele of
Ptolemy II Philadelphos was found together with fragments of other Ptolemaic inscriptions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Porter & R. Moss,
Topographical
Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts,
Reliefs and Paintings, IV. Lower and Middle Egypt
(1934); J. Ball,
Egypt in the Classical Geographers
(1942)
M; K. Michalowski,
L'Art de l'Ancienne Égypte
(1968) 491-94.
S. SHENOUDA