City
Pelusio
Ruinen bei Tine (d. i. Kotstadt) (Miller) · Tell el-Farama (Barrington)
Listen to the story
Pelusium guarded the easternmost branch of the Nile, among marshes and swamps, and its Greek name probably grew out of an Egyptian word for clay, heard by Greeks as their own word for mud. The ruins lie at Tell el-Farama in Egypt. As the natural gateway into the Nile country, the town was a heavily fortified border stronghold, often besieged, and conquerors such as Alexander the Great in 332 BC marched through it. Pompey was murdered here in 48 BC. Ancient writers also claimed its people revered the onion, a cult later Christian authors mocked as superstition.