# Egyptian towns' names



## anangelaway

Good evening/afternoon Cherine, and all of you!

I might have known the signification of some town's name from Egypt, such as Cairo, while living in the country for a while, but as of today, I do not remember any really.

Cherine, or anyone else who happens to know, would you please tell me the meaning/origine of the following cities names. I have been more than once to most of those places, and I thought I should know better to be honnest, at least the principal. I find it so interesting. Unfortunately, my experience/job was mainly focused at the end, on underwater wonders of the Red Sea...

This is a small list of different names:

Cairo
Sharm el-Sheikh or Sharm ash Shaykh
Nuweiba
Dahab
Luxor
Aswān
Abu Simbel
Safaga
Alexandria (never made it to Alexandria, so well known at least for its library, the largest library in the world, correct?)

I made few searches, and found very interesting historical facts, from Ancient Egypt, to modern Egypt. There is so much to read, so much to learn, it is fascinating, historical Egyptian languages, origin of berbers, Ibn Khaldūn last year in Egypt, and so on and so on...

I'm not doing an essay, so I'm not in a rush, and thank you for your time in answering my message, I really appreciate any type of effort.
Definately, I will have more linguistic questions surely later.

Once again, thank you so much.

Edit: At least I have these two correctly, no?
The Sinai Peninsula (in Arabic, Shibh Jazirat Sina شبه جزيرة سيناء)
The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر al-Bahr al-Ahmar)
Would Ahmar means ''sea'', as in ''mer'' in French, or nothing to do with it at all?


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## cherine

Bonjour l'Ange 
Your questions require research, so if you give me some time I'll try my best to give you as accurate answers as possible.
For the time being, I'll answer to what I already know :
- Alexandria : it's one of so many cities named after Alexander the Great, who turned it from a little fishermen village to one of the greates cities of the Greco-Roman world.
And yes it's famous for its library which is one of the biggest libraries of the world, not yet the greatest, though the ancient library was definitly the greatest of its time. It has also other great monuments (greco-roman, islamic, modern) that are worth visiting. Maybe next time you come to Egypt 

The Arabic names you wrote are correct, bravo  
al-bahr = sea
al-ahm*a*r = red (ce n'est pas comme mer, ça se prononce même différemment)

Other answers in the way


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## anangelaway

Bonjour Cherine!

Merci milles fois, c'est vraiment très sympa de ta part. Je ne suis pas pressée du tout, et suis ravie d'approndir mes connaissances sur ton pays que j'adore, grâce à toi, mais aussi apprendre quelques mots en arabe, c'est parfait!
Merci, Merci!!!


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## cherine

anangelaway said:
			
		

> I'm not doing an essay, so I'm not in a rush, and thank you for your time in answering my message, I really appreciate any type of effort.
> Definately, I will have more linguistic questions surely later.


Well, a couple of month waiting is not much, is it ?  Sorry it took me so long. Actually I found the answers almost the next day, but then was either too busy or too lazy.
But I though it was about time that I finally post what I found. The translation is lousy, I admit it, so I hope others would post their corrections and any further information they may have.


			
				anangelaway said:
			
		

> This is a small list of different names:
> 
> Cairo
> Sharm el-Sheikh or Sharm ash Shaykh
> Nuweiba
> Dahab
> Luxor
> Aswān
> Abu Simbel
> Safaga
> Alexandria (never made it to Alexandria, so well known at least for its library, the largest library in the world, correct?)



Cairo القاهرة : Foreign pronounciation of the Arabic name al-qâhira (the conqueror or the victor [city]). This city was built by the Fatimide some thousand years ago, and they made it their capital and it remained Egypt's capital since then.
Nuweiba نويبع : diminutive of nab' نبع water spring or source (not 100% about this one, just my guessing) and I'm not sure why it's called like this.
Dahab دهب : this is the Arabic word for gold. Maybe because of the gold mines in Sinai, or maybe because of the golden sands there... again just guessing, and not sure about the reason; though I'm sure that dahab=gold.
I didn't find Safaga. But if I do, I'll post the info here.

Now, here's what I found in books :

Sharm (pl. shurûm) is a small bay with a narrow entry, where corals can grow. But I don't know who's the Sheikh this sharm was named after 

Assouan: Its old Egyptian name is Soun or Sounou and means the market place, because it was the place of trade between Egypt and Sudan. Its Hebraic name is Souweneh, its Greek name is Souni, Latin Syéne, and its Arabic name Asouan is derived from the Coptic one: Souan. Some old Arab geographers wrote it Souan and not Assouan. The city is known for granit rocks, known in Arabic as sawwân

Louxor : Another city with more than one name : old Egyptian sacred name (first time for me to know there was such thing as a "sacred name" for a city) was Ouast, old Egyptian "seculiar" name : Thebes, Greek name : Diospolis Magna (i.e. grand or elevated), Coptic name : Papé. It's said that it's raised on a part of Thebes called Aqsorein (i.e. the 2 palaces) or Papé. Current name is Louksor which is an Arabic name meaning palaces, because it has 2 palaces : Luxor and Karnak. It's also said that it's called Tria Kastra (i.e. 3 fortified palaces).

Abu Simbel : old village, mentioned in Gaultier's dictionary under the name of Ipsamboul.
It took the name "fariq" for some time, than the name was changed again in 1917 into Abu Simbel.

Rafah : its old Egyptian name was Rapouh, Assyrian name: Rapikhi, Greek name: Rafia or Rafêa.

Al-Ghardaqa : Its original name is Hurghada​
Here's the Arabic text :

*1- شرم الشيخ *شرم cherm (جمع شروم)، وهو خليج طويل ذو مدخل ضيق، متشعِّب ومتجعد يشبه الوادى البحرى ria، ويمكن أن يُبنى عليه أرصفة مرجانية (البحر الأحمر).
*2- أسوان :* ذكرها جوتييه فى قاموسه فقال إن اسمها المصرى Soun أو Sounou ومعناها السوق أو محل التجارة حيث فيها كانت تتبادل أنواع التجارة من القطرين المصرى والسودانى بسبب وجود الشلال الأول، فى أضيق نقطة من الوادى، ثم قال: إن اسمها العبرى Souweneh والرومى Souni واللاتينى Syéne والقبطى Souan ومنه اسمها العربى أسوان [...] الهمذانى ذكرها فى كتاب البلدان "سوان" بغير ألف فى أولها. [...] وبأسوان حجارة الصَوّان (الجرانيت).
*3- الأقصر: *اسمها المصرى المقدس Ouast والمدنى Thebes طيبة، [...] واسها الرومى Diospolis Magna أى الكبيرة أو العليا [...] وذكرها أميلينو فى جغرافيته، فقال إن اسمها القبطى Papé، وهى قائمة على جزء من مدينة طيبة ويقال لها Aqsorein أى الأقصرين –أو بابة أو بابى- واسمها الحالى Louksor قال: وهى كلمة عربية معناها القصور، حيث تشمل معابد الأقصر والكرنك وهما الأقصرين، ويقال إنها تسمى الثلاث مضال Tria Kastra أى الثلاث قصور المحصنة [...] ووردت فى معجم البلدان الأقصر، كأنه جَمَع قصر، وهى جَمْع قِلّة...
*4- أبو سِنْبِل* : من القرى القديمة، ذكرها جوتييه فى قاموسه باسم Ipsamboul ، قال: وهى أبو سنبل التى بمركز الدر.
وكانت أبو سنبل تعرف فى دفاتر الحكومة ومحرراتها باسم "فريق" [...] وفى سنة 1917 صدر قرار بتغيير اسم فريق لاستهجانه وتسميتها أبو سنبل كما كانت قديمًا.
*5- رفح*: اسمها المصرى Rapouh والأشورى Rapikhi والرومى Rafia أو Rafêa.
*6- الغردقة:* اسمها الأصلى هرغادة... ​​


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## Jhorer Brishti

Alexandria has been an ancient port city for thousands of years. As can be evinced from its name, present day Alexandria in Northern Egypt was one of many "Alexandria's" founded by Alexander the Great in his conquest of the entire known(from a western perspective at least) world. Alexandria is particularly noted in myth and romance for "The Lighthouse at Alexandria" which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world(again biased from a Greco-Roman perspective..hehe). The Lighthouse at Alexandria was called a "Pharos" in greek which gave rise to the romance words for Light house(French: phare, Spanish:faro,etc.)..


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## mansio

I am wondering what "Pharos" means. 
It is the Greek(?) name of the island on which the famous lighthouse stood. It gave its name to the building.


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## Jhorer Brishti

Mansio, Pharos is the direct equivalent of Lighthouse in Greek. Thus, the island must have been named for its one notable feature:the famed lighthouse and not vice-versa..


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## cherine

Are you sure about that Jhorer ?
It's a shame I don't know enough about my own country's history, but I think that by the time Alexander arrived at the island Pharos, the lighthouse was not there.
But I'll try to check again, and confirm either opinions.


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## Jhorer Brishti

Actually cherine, I am not sure about that. I was just surmising that since the word "Pharos" meant lighthouse in ancient Greek(according to Wikipedia) and the island was given the same name, the lighthouse must have been there before the island was named. Of course the inverse still stands and the island's original name(having a completely different meaning) might have become synonymous with the Lighthouse since it was its principal feature once they got around to actually constructing it.


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## cherine

This is the problem  the island has the same as the light house, but which was named so first ? this is the question 

Again, I'll try to find the aswer and I'll post here.

P.S. don't you or any one else have other comments on the translation I made ? I don't like it very much 

Shame shame on me !
The island's name was not Pharos (before Alexander, that is) it was Rakhotis (in Arabic it's called راقودة )
Here's a link with a small paragraph about this subject. I recommend the site very much. (It's not commercial Elroy, but if I'm against any rule, then please forgive me and delete it)


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## Jhorer Brishti

Unless I'm mistaken, I think it says Alexandria as the humble fishing village was known as Rakhotis before the city was founded by Alexander. In the same article it says the narrow strip of land connected the Island of Pharos to the coast of Alexandria..

  So your original question of whether the island was named for the Lighthouse or whether the Lighthouse was named for the island remains unsolved.....TUN DUN TUN...


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## cherine

Eureka !
Here it is.   
It has always been Pharos, and it gave its name to lighthouse


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## mansio

In French we use the word "phare" for lighthouse and for the headlights of cars, so we know the word comes from the Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria, which has its name from the Pharos island. 
I was just asking if someone knew the meaning of Pharos, the name of the island.
I like to know the meaning of names, it must be the reason why I am on a language forum.


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## Jhorer Brishti

mansio, sorry if my first post carried a patronizing tone(now in hindsight it seems to have had one..). Both cherine and I researched the original meaning of Pharos in Greek but were unsuccessful at finding the answer as you can see from the above posts.. I think my first statement still stands. Pharos has always meant Lighthouse in Greek and the island in question was named Pharos for its monumental lighthouse that was high enough on the "Astonishing" meter to be included as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world ...

   If you yourself are able to discover the meaning of Pharos in Greek(before it came to be a generic word for Lighthouse) please feel free to inform us since I know that I am also intensely interested in word etymologies..


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## mansio

In the Greek epic poem "Odyssey" a verse says: 4-354: "In that stormy sea, there is a small island called Pharos, off the coast of fruitful Egypt".

There is also the legend of Pharos, the pilot of Menelaus' ship, coming back from the Trojan War. He was bitten by a snake on an Egyptian island which was named after him.

I also read that Pharos may be an Egyptian name.


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## anangelaway

cherine said:
			
		

> Well, a couple of month waiting is not much, is it ?  Sorry it took me so long. Actually I found the answers almost the next day, but then was either too busy or too lazy.
> But I though it was about time that I finally post what I found. The translation is lousy, I admit it, so I hope others would post their corrections and any further information they may have.



Thank you Cherine, this is brilliant!!!


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## Witiza

Let's go further: Port Saïd?

Moderator's Note: Sorry, this thread is multi-topic and has to be closed. Thank you for your understanding.


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