naucratis, city in Egypt located in the western Delta. As a major center of Greek trade, Naucratis experienced its high point in the seventh to fourth centuries B.C. In Coptic-Arabic literature, the city is first mentioned as one of the stopping places of Apa Epimachus (Rossi, 1887, pp. 41-42, 68-69). This account, however, makes no mention of Christians in Naucratis. Our earliest record of a bishop in the city is of Isaias, who held office in the middle of the fifth century (Munier, 1943, p. 23).
There are no definite attestations of Christianity in Naucratis in the Arabic period.
In 1884, Sir Flinders Petrie began excavation of the ruins of Naucratis, which are located in the province of Beheira north of Ityay al-Barud in the modern village of al-Niqrash.