DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6641#0019
TELL EL YAHOODIEH.
THE EGYPTIAN CITY.
The first account we have of Tell el Yahoodieh,
the mound of the Jews, is that of Linant,1 who
visited the place in 1825. The French engineer
describes the size of the Tell, its appearance,
and the few antiquities which he saw there;
and noticing how actively the fellaheen were
even then digging sebakh (manure), he pro-
phesies that the mound will some day entirely
disappear. Many years afterwards it was visited
by several explorers. Mr. Greville Chester, Prof.
Hayter Lewis, and Brugsch-Bey have directed the
attention of travellers to that locality and to its
name, which indicates a tradition, the authenticity
of which it would be interesting to ascertain.
The excavations made there by Brugsch-Bey
brought to light the remains of a chamber lined
with enamelled tiles of the time of Barneses
III., fragments of which are scattered through
various museums of Egypt and Europe. But
the discovery has been fatal to the mound.
There is no place in Egypt where the fellaheen
have worked such wanton destruction, or so
thoroughly carried away whatever could be
taken.
Near the present station of Shibeen el Kanater,
the traveller sees the mound in the distance. I
1 " Memoires sur les principaux travaux d'utilite publique,"
p. 138.
need not insist much on the form of the Tell,
a plan of which has been published by Prof.
Hayter Lewis in illustration of his interesting
paper on Tell el Yahoodieh.2 The mound is
limited by a rectangular enclosure oriented from
east to west. Its long axis is about half a mile
in length, while in breadth it measures a quarter
of a mile from north to south. The enclosure
consists of two parallel walls, separated by a
space filled in with sand. The basement of
these walls is built of large limestone blocks,
which are constantly being quarried out by the
natives. The eastern side of the enclosure is
much higher than the rest, and is formed of two
artificial hills, against which the sand seems to
have been heaped up intentionally. Between
them there is a gap which probably was occupied
by a gateway. Mr. Lewis's plan indicates that
these two hills have a kind of core formed by a
strong wall with projecting buttresses; but I
observed no trace of these constructions. In
advance of that side, towards the desert, extend
the ruins of a regularly built Boman city; the
houses line the two main streets, exactly as one
would expect to find quarters built by a colony of
soldiers. The ghezireh (sand island) on which
the mound rests extends further to the north, and
s " Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,"
vol. vii., part 2.
THE EGYPTIAN CITY.
The first account we have of Tell el Yahoodieh,
the mound of the Jews, is that of Linant,1 who
visited the place in 1825. The French engineer
describes the size of the Tell, its appearance,
and the few antiquities which he saw there;
and noticing how actively the fellaheen were
even then digging sebakh (manure), he pro-
phesies that the mound will some day entirely
disappear. Many years afterwards it was visited
by several explorers. Mr. Greville Chester, Prof.
Hayter Lewis, and Brugsch-Bey have directed the
attention of travellers to that locality and to its
name, which indicates a tradition, the authenticity
of which it would be interesting to ascertain.
The excavations made there by Brugsch-Bey
brought to light the remains of a chamber lined
with enamelled tiles of the time of Barneses
III., fragments of which are scattered through
various museums of Egypt and Europe. But
the discovery has been fatal to the mound.
There is no place in Egypt where the fellaheen
have worked such wanton destruction, or so
thoroughly carried away whatever could be
taken.
Near the present station of Shibeen el Kanater,
the traveller sees the mound in the distance. I
1 " Memoires sur les principaux travaux d'utilite publique,"
p. 138.
need not insist much on the form of the Tell,
a plan of which has been published by Prof.
Hayter Lewis in illustration of his interesting
paper on Tell el Yahoodieh.2 The mound is
limited by a rectangular enclosure oriented from
east to west. Its long axis is about half a mile
in length, while in breadth it measures a quarter
of a mile from north to south. The enclosure
consists of two parallel walls, separated by a
space filled in with sand. The basement of
these walls is built of large limestone blocks,
which are constantly being quarried out by the
natives. The eastern side of the enclosure is
much higher than the rest, and is formed of two
artificial hills, against which the sand seems to
have been heaped up intentionally. Between
them there is a gap which probably was occupied
by a gateway. Mr. Lewis's plan indicates that
these two hills have a kind of core formed by a
strong wall with projecting buttresses; but I
observed no trace of these constructions. In
advance of that side, towards the desert, extend
the ruins of a regularly built Boman city; the
houses line the two main streets, exactly as one
would expect to find quarters built by a colony of
soldiers. The ghezireh (sand island) on which
the mound rests extends further to the north, and
s " Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,"
vol. vii., part 2.