Road station

Phenice

Laqeita (Barrington)

At Laqeita, in the Wadi Hammamat, lay Phenice, the Phoinikon of Greek texts, where the desert road from Coptos forked towards the Red Sea harbours of Myos Hormos and Berenike. Its watering station was probably built under Vespasian, between AD 76 and 79, by the prefect Lucius Iulius Ursus, though the route was in use before that. Notes written on potsherds from the early second century name the station, and down to late antiquity a cavalry unit of Palmyrenes was stationed here.

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