Famous
emporia include: •
Elim, where
Hatshepsut kept her
Red Sea fleet; •
Eilat, where
Thebes was supplied with mortuary materials,
linen,
bitumen,
naphtha,
frankincense,
myrrh and
carved stone amulets from
Palestine,
Canaan,
Aram,
Lebanon,
Ammon,
Hazor,
Moab,
Edom,
Punt and the
Arabian Peninsula from
Petra to
Midian; •
Naucratis, the only
Greek colony in Egypt; •
Olbia, which exported cereals, fish and slaves; • and
Sais, where
Solon went to acquire the knowledge of
Egypt. In the
Hellenic and
Ptolemaic realm, emporia included the various
Greek,
Phoenician,
Egyptian and other
city-states and
trading posts in the circum-Mediterranean area. Among these commercial hubs were cities like
Avaris and
Syene in
Lower Egypt,
Thebes in
Upper Egypt, and
Opone, Elim, Elat and other Red Sea ports. For the
Hittites, it encompassed
Kanesh and
Kadesh. For Phoenicia, it included
Cádiz,
Carthage,
Leptis Magna, and
Cyrene, among others (although Cyrene had been founded by Greeks). Ancient Greek writers described certain locations in ancient India and
Taprobana as emporia. == See also ==