Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Canopus

CANOPUS, or Canobus, in ancient geography, a town of Lower Egypt, on the Mediterranean, a hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles, to the east of Alexandria. It contained a very popular shrine of the god Serapis; and was the seat of the manufacture of henna, the scarlet dye with which women in the East colour their nails. The town was notorious for its dissoluteness ; and as Alexandria rose into eminence, it gradually declined. All that remains is a heap of ruins. Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, is said to have died in Egypt, and to have given his name to the town.