designation "geometry" in the sense of a purely intellectual mathematical practice. Indeed, Greeks like Thales were already accomplished geometricians before their travel to Egypt and very likely Herodotus assumed that because the Egyptian was older, the Greeks must have got it from there. In terms of our modern understanding of the Greeks, and in particular the early use of their nascent Greek alphabet, the finds of Naucratis have turned out to be foundational. "The inscriptions on the pottery have yielded what Mr. Ernest Gardner considers—apparently on firm grounds—to be the oldest Ionic inscriptions, as well as some in the Korinthian, Melian, and Lesbian alphabets." Of particular interest are the several examples of an evolutionary variation from the original Phoenician alphabetic script. Much has also been learned by comparing these alphabets with the forms they assumed a century later, forms that were destined to become universal across the Hellenic world. Naucratis was not only the first Greek settlement in Egypt but also Egypt's most important harbor in antiquity until the rise of Alexandria and the shifting of the Nile led to its decline. Nevertheless, the ancient city of Heracleion/Thonis also rivalled Naucratis as an important port city of Egypt, especially from the 6th to the 4th century BC. Herodotus Herodotus wrote that the prostitutes of Naucratis were "peculiarly alluring" and relates the story of Charaxus, brother of the poet Sappho, who traveled to Naucratis to purchase (for a "vast sum") the freedom of one Rhodopis, a bewitchingly beautiful Thracian slave and courtesan. After obtaining her freedom, she set up a brothel, built up a thriving business and amassed a small fortune. As a measure of thanks, she commissioned an expensive votive offering to the gods, eventually placed at Delphi, which could be seen in the historian's day. Athenaeus Athenaeus, in the Deipnosophistae, writes that in Naucratis the people dine in the Prytaneion on the natal day of the Hestia Prytanitis (). In popular culture In the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford's character, archaeologist Indiana Jones, briefly mentions Naucratis during a university lecture. See also List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities Decree of Nectanebo I, originally known as the 'Stele of Naukratis'. Issued by Nectanebo I. Proclus of Naucratis Cleomenes of Naucratis Notes and references Notes Explanatory footnotes Citations Sources Further reading M.M. Austin—Greece and Egypt in the Archaic Age. Cambridge Philological Society, 1970. F. W.