Nilopolis

Nilopolis

A titular see and a suffragan of Oxyrynchos, in Egypt. According to Ptolemy (IV, v, 26) the city was situated on an island of the Nile in the Heraclean nome. Eusebius ("Hist. eccl.", VI, xli) states that it had a bishop, Cheremon, during the persecution of Decius; others are mentioned a little later. "The Chronicle of John of Nikiou" (559) alludes to this city in connection with the occupation of Egypt by the Mussulmans, and it is also referred to by Arabian medieval geographers under its original name of Delas. In the fourteenth century it paid 20,000 dinars in taxes, which indicates a place of some importance. At present, Delas forms a part of the moudirieh of Beni-Suef in the district of El-Zaouiet, and has about 2500 inhabitants of whom nearly 1000 are nomadic Bedouins. It is situated on the left bank of the Nile about forty-seven miles from Memphis.

LE QUIEN, Oriens christianus, II (Paris, 1741), 587; AMELINEAU, La geographie de l'Egypte a l'epoque copte (Paris, 1893), 136-138.

S. VAILHÉ