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Gulf of Gabès
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Gulf of Gabès
The Gulf of Gabes (or Cabès, Cabes, Gaps; Arabic: خليج قابس, romanized: ḫalīǧ Qābis), also known as Lesser Syrtis (from Ancient Greek: Μικρά Σύρτις, romanized: Mikrá Sýrtis; Latin: Syrtis Minor), contrasting with the Greater Syrtis in Libya, is a gulf on Tunisia's east coast in the Mediterranean Sea, off North Africa. The gulf roughly spans the coast from Sfax to Djerba. At the head of the gulf is the city of Gabès (Ghannouche) where the tides have a large range of up to 2.1 m at spring tides. Both Gabès and Sfax are major ports on the gulf, supporting sponge and tuna fisheries, with Gabès being the economic and administrative center.
The Latin name Syrtis Minor is used by Pliny the Elder, quoting an earlier description in Polybius 1.39.2, who uses the equivalent Ancient Greek: ἡ μικρά Σύρτις (elsewhere also Σύρτις ἡ μικρά, Σύρτις ἡ μικροτέρα, ἡ μικροτέρα Σύρτις).
An alternative name was Λωτοφαγῖτις σύρτις Lōtophagîtis sýrtis "Syrtis of the lotus-eaters", reported by Strabo. (Compare Syrtis Major, the ancient name of the Gulf of Sidra.)
Syrtis is referred to in the New Testament of the Bible where the Apostle Paul relates being sent in chains to Rome to stand trial before Caesar Nero. The crew of his ship was worried about being driven by a storm into Syrtis, and took precautions to prevent it, resulting, eventually, in being shipwrecked on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
Strabo refers to Tacape (the modern Gabès) as an important entrepot of the Lesser Syrtis.
In Book IV of the Histories, Herodotus describes a violent ritual that took place in the region:
During a festival dedicated to the goddess Athena, their young women divided into two camps and then set to fighting each other with blows from stones and wooden clubs, thereby enacting, as they say, a ceremonial that was instituted by their ancestors in honor of the indigenous deity whom we call Athena. Some of them who die from the wounds are called false virgins.
A modern counterpart to this festival of violence, involving two opposing gangs near the Shatt al-Jerid annually engaging in combat with stones and clubs was described in Une fete de printemps au Jerid (1942) by G. Payre.
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Gulf of Gabès
The Gulf of Gabes (or Cabès, Cabes, Gaps; Arabic: خليج قابس, romanized: ḫalīǧ Qābis), also known as Lesser Syrtis (from Ancient Greek: Μικρά Σύρτις, romanized: Mikrá Sýrtis; Latin: Syrtis Minor), contrasting with the Greater Syrtis in Libya, is a gulf on Tunisia's east coast in the Mediterranean Sea, off North Africa. The gulf roughly spans the coast from Sfax to Djerba. At the head of the gulf is the city of Gabès (Ghannouche) where the tides have a large range of up to 2.1 m at spring tides. Both Gabès and Sfax are major ports on the gulf, supporting sponge and tuna fisheries, with Gabès being the economic and administrative center.
The Latin name Syrtis Minor is used by Pliny the Elder, quoting an earlier description in Polybius 1.39.2, who uses the equivalent Ancient Greek: ἡ μικρά Σύρτις (elsewhere also Σύρτις ἡ μικρά, Σύρτις ἡ μικροτέρα, ἡ μικροτέρα Σύρτις).
An alternative name was Λωτοφαγῖτις σύρτις Lōtophagîtis sýrtis "Syrtis of the lotus-eaters", reported by Strabo. (Compare Syrtis Major, the ancient name of the Gulf of Sidra.)
Syrtis is referred to in the New Testament of the Bible where the Apostle Paul relates being sent in chains to Rome to stand trial before Caesar Nero. The crew of his ship was worried about being driven by a storm into Syrtis, and took precautions to prevent it, resulting, eventually, in being shipwrecked on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
Strabo refers to Tacape (the modern Gabès) as an important entrepot of the Lesser Syrtis.
In Book IV of the Histories, Herodotus describes a violent ritual that took place in the region:
During a festival dedicated to the goddess Athena, their young women divided into two camps and then set to fighting each other with blows from stones and wooden clubs, thereby enacting, as they say, a ceremonial that was instituted by their ancestors in honor of the indigenous deity whom we call Athena. Some of them who die from the wounds are called false virgins.
A modern counterpart to this festival of violence, involving two opposing gangs near the Shatt al-Jerid annually engaging in combat with stones and clubs was described in Une fete de printemps au Jerid (1942) by G. Payre.
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