Coptos
The Nile town at the head of the desert road to the Red Sea, where an Egyptian tale hid the magical Book of Thoth.
- Egyptian name
- Gebtu
- Modern town
- Qift, Qena Governorate
- Modern country
- Egypt
- God
- Min, god of fertility and the eastern desert
- Role
- Start of desert routes through Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea
- In literature
- Setne Khamwas story: the Book of Thoth hidden in the Nile near Coptos
What is Coptos known for?
Coptos, Egyptian Gebtu and modern Qift, lies on the east bank of the Nile north of Luxor. From early times it was the starting point for expeditions through the Wadi Hammamat to stone quarries, gold mines and the Red Sea ports. In Roman times it was a major station on the trade route to India. Its chief god was Min, a fertility god who also protected desert travelers.
In the Demotic story of Setne Khamwas, written down in the Ptolemaic period about a son of Ramesses II, a magical Book of Thoth lies at the bottom of the Nile near Coptos, sealed in a series of nested boxes of iron, bronze, wood, ivory, silver and gold and guarded by serpents. Reading it lets one understand the speech of animals and see the gods. In the story, everyone who takes it is ruined.
The tale is fiction, but it shows how Egyptians imagined Thoth's writings as dangerous, hidden knowledge.
The Setne Khamwas story places a hidden Book of Thoth in the Nile near Coptos.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeThoth
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Qift'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Min'Reference
- W. M. Flinders Petrie, Egyptian Tales, Second Series ('Setna and the Magic Book'), Project GutenbergPrimary text
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.