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Description
Marea is an archaeological site approximately 40 km west of Alexandria, on the southern shore of Lake Mareotis. The 'Golden Age' of Marea was in the Byzantine period, related to the development of the Christian pilgrimage centre in Abu Mena, nearby. Probably in the 5th c. a large city with an impressive layout was built in Marea, a convenient transfer point for travellers between Alexandria and Abu Mena. Since 2000, comprehensive archaeological research at Marea has been conducted by the University of Warsaw in cooperation with the Archaeological Museum in Krakow, a project which yielded around 7,700 coins. The relatively high number of finds from a single site recovered from well-defined archaeological contexts, provide a good picture of the monetary circulation in a large Byzantine city located in the hinterland of Alexandria.
