Naucratis or
Naukratis (, "naval victory",
Piemro in
Egyptian, now
Kom Gieif), was a city of
Ancient Egypt, on the
Canopic branch of the
Nile river, 45 mi (72 km) SE of the open sea and the later capital of
Ptolemaic Egypt,
Alexandria. It was the first and, for much of its early history, the only permanent
Greek colony in Egypt; acting as a symbiotic nexus for the interchange of Greek and Egyptian art and culture.