Terenuthis
TERENU´THIS(Τερενοῦθις, Not. Imp. ), the modern Teraniek, a town in Lower Aegypt, was situated on the left bank of the Canopic arm of the Nile. At this point a pass through the hills conducted to the Natron Lakes, about 30 miles to the W. of the town. The people of Terenuthis farmed of the government a monopoly for collecting and exporting natron. [NITRIAE]. Ruins at the modern hamlet of Abou-BelIeurepresent the ancient Terenuthis. (Sonnini, Voyages, vol. 1. p. 228.)
[W.B.D]An artificial mound near El Tarana, a village 110 km SE of Alexandria on the edge of the Libyan Desert. Near Lake Maryut a stela, now in Cairo Museum, was found. It dates from ca. 1085 B.C. and describes a gift of land to Hathor of Terenuthis by a caravan leader and a chief of Libya. In El Tarana there used to be a ruined Ptolemaic temple with blocks bearing the names of Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphos, and Penamun. Undoubtedly, owing to its situation at the head of the caravan road between Egypt and Libya, Terenuthis became prosperous, as the finds from her necropolis indicate. By far the most important among these finds are limestone grave stelae, belonging mostly to the first half of the 3d c. A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHYC. Bonner, “The Ship of the Soul on a Group of Grave Stelae from Terenuthis,” ProcPhilSoc 85 (1941) 84-91; Z. Ali, “Some funerary Stelae from Kom Abou Bellou,” BSRAA 38 (1949) 55-88; 40 (1953) 1-50; J. Schwartz, “Les Stéles de Terenouthis et Ia mort d'Alexandre Severe,” Chronique d'Égypte 30 (1955) 124-26; S. Farid, “Preliminary Report on the Excavations of the Antiquities Department at Kom Abu-Billo,” ASAE 61 (1973) 21-26.
S. SHENOUDA