Pelusium - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

PELUSIUM, an ancient city and port of Egypt, now represented by two large mounds close to the coast and the edge of the desert, 20 m. E. of Port Said. It lay in the marshes at the mouth of the most easterly (Pelusiac) branch of the Nile, which has long since been silted up, and was the key of the land towards Syria and a strong fortress, which, from the Persian invasion at least, played a great part in all wars between Egypt and the East. Its name has not been found on Egyptian monuments, but it may be the Sin of the Bible and of Assur-bani-pal's inscription. Pelusium ("the muddy") is the Farama of the Arabs, Peremoun in Coptic; the name Tina which clings to the locality seems etymologically connected with the Arabic word for clay or mud. The site, crowned with extensive ruins of burnt brick of the Byzantine or Arab period, has not yielded any important remains. (F. LL. G.)