BERENICE  , an

ancient seaport of Egypt, on the west coast of the Red Sea, in 23° 56' N., 35° 34' E . Built at the head of a gulf, the Sinus Immundus, or Foul Bay, of Strabo, it was sheltered on the north by Ras Benas (Lepte Extrema) . The port is now nearly filled up, has a sand-bar at its entrance and can be reached only by small craft . Most important of the ruins is a temple; the remnants of its sculptures and inscriptions preserve the name of Tiberius and the figures of many deities, including a goddess 1 Alabarch or Arabarch (Gr . ItXat3&Pxrs, or 1cpai3(pxos), the name of the head magistrate of the Jews in Alexandria under the Ptolemaic and Roman rules . i of the emerald mines . Berenice was founded by Ptolemy II . (285-247 B.c.) in order to shorten the dangerous Red Sea voyages, and was named in honour of his mother . For four or five centuries it became the entrep6t of trade between India, Arabia and Upper Egypt . From it a road, provided with watering stations, leads north-west across the desert to the Nile at Coptos . In the neighbourhood of Berenice are the emerald mines of Zabara and Saket .