Ras Kouroun

For the other Mount Casius on the Mediterranean coast near Antioch, see Jebel Aqra.
Ras Kasaroun
Highest point
Coordinates31°9′34.02″N 33°5′17.53″E / 31.1594500°N 33.0882028°E / 31.1594500; 33.0882028
Geography
Ras Kasaroun is located in Egypt
Ras Kasaroun
Ras Kasaroun

Ras Kasaroun (Arabic: راس كسرون)[1] or El-Kas (Arabic: القاس), also known as Casius Mons in Latin, or Kasion Oros (Ancient Greek: Κάσιον)[2] to Greek geographers such as Herodotus (who considered it to mark the boundary between Egypt and Syria), is a small mountain and a former town near the marshy Lake Bardawil, the "Serbonian Bog" of Herodotus, where Zeus' ancient opponent Typhon was "said to be hidden".[3] Here, Greeks knew, Baal Sephon was worshipped.

The sandy mount stands out about the flat landscape, though it is a mere 100 metres above the sea.

Its name is given to the Catholic titular see of Casius.

Like the other Mount Casius in Syria, it was historically associated with a shrine to Zeus, one of whose epithets was Kasios.

The saying "Kasiotic knot", which in Medieval Greek meant "someone who are crooked in their ways", comes from the town's name.[4]

  1. ^ "Carte geographique de l'Egypte et des pays environnans by Pierre Jacotin". PAThs – Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature. 1818.
  2. ^ "TM Places". www.trismegistos.org. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  3. ^ Lane Fox 2009:253-56.
  4. ^ "SOL Search". www.cs.uky.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-19.