Qus

Qus is a city in the modern Qena Governorate, Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile. Its older Arabic name was Qus Warwir, from Coptic. In Graeco-Roman times it was called Apollonopolis Parva or Apollinopolis Mikra, and during the Roman Empire it was renamed Diocletianopolis, corresponding probably to the Maximianopolis of the later empire. In the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period important people of Qus were buried at Naqada on the other side of the Nile, where stelae belonging to local governors of Qus, including that of the priest Hetepi, were found. The city gradually lost its importance as a point of departure for expeditions to the Red Sea, but regained it in the 13th century with the opening of an alternate commercial route to the Red Sea, when it replaced Qift as the primary commercial center for trading with Africa, India and Arabia.