Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

dttt. xix. THE TEMPLE-CITY OF ZOAN-TANIS 299'

and obelisks to the sun-god;—yet neither these nor
other cities formed his permanent abode. On the
eastern frontier of Egypt, in the low-lands of the Delta,.
in Zoan-Tanis, was the royal residence of this Pharaoh.
Connected with the sea by its situation on the then
broad and navigable Tanitic arm of the Nile, and com-
manding also the entrance of the great road, covered by
' Khetams,' or fortresses, which led to Palestine either
through Pelusium or through Migdol, Zoan-Tanis was,
in the proper sense of the word, the hey of Egypt.
Impressed with the importance of the position of this-
' great city,' Ea-messu transferred his court there,
strengthened its fortifications, and founded a new temple-
city, dedicated to Amen, Ptah, and Horemkhu, with
whom as a fourth he associated the foreign Baal-Sutekh.
With the newly-established divinities the king united
himself both in effigy and in name, and there appeared in
due course an Amen of Ea-messu, a Ptah, a Horemkhu,
and a Sutekh. The new temple-city had a super-abund-
ance of statues and obelisks, memorial stones, and other
works, the most remarkable of all being the memorial
tablet inscribed with the date of the year 400, of
King Nub. Prom several records found among the
ruins of Tanis much information of an historical and
mythological character is derived incidentally, for the
knowledge of which we are indebted to M. Chabas in his
' Melanges Egyptologiques.' Zoan—or Pa-Ea-messu—
became henceforward the special capital of the empire.
The following 'Letter of Panbesa' (Pap. Anas, iii.)
describes the new city. The writer says :—

So I arrived in the city of Ramses Meri-Amen, and I have found
it excellent, for nothing can compare -with it on the Theban land and
soil. [Here is the seat] of the court. It is pleasant to live in. Its.
fields are full of good things, and life passes in constant plenty and
abundance. Its canals are rich in fish, its lakes swarm with birds,
its meadows are green with vegetables, there is no end of the-