Xois (Greek: Ξόις, Strabo xvii. p, 802; Ptol. iv. 5. § 50; Ξόης, Steph. B. s. v.), was a town of great antiquity and considerable size and was situated nearly in the center of the Nile Delta, Egypt; it is identified as the ancient Egyptian city of Khasut or Khaset or Sakha.
It sat upon an island formed by the Sebennytic and Phatnitic branches of the Nile. It belonged to the Sebennytic Nome, and later was the capital of its own nome, the Xoite nome.
The 14th dynasty, according to Manetho, consisted of 76 Xoite kings. This dynasty immediately preceded that of the Hyksos. It seems probable, therefore, that Xois, from its strong position among the marshes formed by the intersecting branches of the river, held out during the occupation of the Delta by the Hyksos, or at least compromised with the invaders by paying them tribute.
By some geographers it is supposed to be the Papremis of Herodotus (ii. 59, iii. 12). Champollion (l'Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. ii. p. 214) identified Xois's remains at modern-day Sakha (Sakkra), which is the Arabic synonym of the Coptic Xeos and of the old Egyptian Skhoo (Niebuhr, Travels, vol. i. p. 75). The road from Tamiathis to Memphis passed through Xois.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).
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