DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14391#0016
2
STOKE-CITY OF PITHOM AND
THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS.
and Turn. The circumstance that the king has
placed himself among the divinities led M.
LepsiusHo consider him as the local god to whom
the city was consecrate, and therefore to identify
Tell el Maskhutah with the city of " Raamses "
built by the Israelites during the Oppression.
When, therefore, a party of French engineers
settled there in 18G0, and gathered a great
number of workmen around them, the name of
Ramses was adopted for the locality, and has
remained in use up to the present time. For
several years Ramses was a place of some
importance—a European and Arab village, dis-
tinguished by the elegant villa of M. Paponot.
But since the canal was finished, all the inhabi-
tants have left the place, which is once again a
desert, the ruins of houses and of a mosk, and
the wasted gardens being the only witnesses of
its former prosperity.
The mound or horn of Maskhutah is situate
on the southern side of the present canal, the
high banks of which are crowned by the earth-
works thrown up by Arabi's soldiers. Before
the making of the Ismailiah canal this place was
watered by an older work, called the canal of the
Wadi, which is now only a marsh full of reeds.
Moreover, it is still possible to trace the bed and
part of the banks of a much older channel, the
canal of the Pharaohs, re-established by Ptolemy
Philadelphos and again by the Emperor Trajan.
It skirted the south-eastern side of the city.
Standing on the bank of the canal, and looking
from Arabi's redoubt towards the desert,2 we
first note two sides of a very thick wall meeting
at right angles, and constructed of very large
bricks. The northern side rises above the sand
to a height of some two or three yards. On the
western side it used to be entirely covered by
sand; but it was laid bare a few years ago, and
its great width (eight yards) gives it the ap-
pearance of a causeway. The angle of the
southern side is still discernible; but that part is
entirely covered by the villa Paponot. It is easy
to trace the direction of the eastern side, and to
reconstruct the plan of the whole enclosure ; but
on that side, owing to the vicinity of the old canal,
the wall has very likely been destroyed to make
way for the houses of the inhabitants. At the
time when the villa was constructed, nothing
except the monolith and the northern side of the
enclosure could be seen above the sand. One
day, however, in digging for the garden, the work-
men came across another monolith of the same
size as the first, the pair having once stood
symmetrically at the entrance of some edifice.
Concluding that these monuments flanked each
side of an avenue, M. Paponot continued the
excavations in the same direction. The result
was the discovery of two sphinxes in black
granite, placed also on each side of the avenue or
dromos; then, farther on, a shrine or naos in red
sandstone, very well executed, and a large stele
in red granite which was lying flat, and had been
used as the foundation of a Roman wall of baked
bricks.
The discovery of these monuments, which all
belong to the reign of Rameses II., seemed to
offer additional evidence in favour of M. Lepsius's
theory that this was the site of Raamses. M.
Maspero, who published some of them,3 came also
to the conclusion that it was a city of Raamses,
perhaps that of the Israelites, the starting point
of the nation going to conquer the land of
Canaan. This, however, was not yet a well
established fact. The geography of the eastern
part of the Delta is not nearly so well known as
that of Upper Egypt. We are acquainted only
by name with a great number of its cities, canals,
and lakes. Not only in the hieroglyphical lists
of nomes which are inscribed in several temples,
but in the writings of the Greeks and Romans,
we have a great deal of information regarding
the Delta, which was visited by several invading
armies and by a considerable number of traders
1 Lepsius "Chronologic," p. 348; " Zeitschr. fur Mg.
Sprache," 1866, p. 32. * Cf. Plate I,
3 " Eevue Archeologiquo," Nouv. Serie, vol. xxxiv.,
p. 320.
STOKE-CITY OF PITHOM AND
THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS.
and Turn. The circumstance that the king has
placed himself among the divinities led M.
LepsiusHo consider him as the local god to whom
the city was consecrate, and therefore to identify
Tell el Maskhutah with the city of " Raamses "
built by the Israelites during the Oppression.
When, therefore, a party of French engineers
settled there in 18G0, and gathered a great
number of workmen around them, the name of
Ramses was adopted for the locality, and has
remained in use up to the present time. For
several years Ramses was a place of some
importance—a European and Arab village, dis-
tinguished by the elegant villa of M. Paponot.
But since the canal was finished, all the inhabi-
tants have left the place, which is once again a
desert, the ruins of houses and of a mosk, and
the wasted gardens being the only witnesses of
its former prosperity.
The mound or horn of Maskhutah is situate
on the southern side of the present canal, the
high banks of which are crowned by the earth-
works thrown up by Arabi's soldiers. Before
the making of the Ismailiah canal this place was
watered by an older work, called the canal of the
Wadi, which is now only a marsh full of reeds.
Moreover, it is still possible to trace the bed and
part of the banks of a much older channel, the
canal of the Pharaohs, re-established by Ptolemy
Philadelphos and again by the Emperor Trajan.
It skirted the south-eastern side of the city.
Standing on the bank of the canal, and looking
from Arabi's redoubt towards the desert,2 we
first note two sides of a very thick wall meeting
at right angles, and constructed of very large
bricks. The northern side rises above the sand
to a height of some two or three yards. On the
western side it used to be entirely covered by
sand; but it was laid bare a few years ago, and
its great width (eight yards) gives it the ap-
pearance of a causeway. The angle of the
southern side is still discernible; but that part is
entirely covered by the villa Paponot. It is easy
to trace the direction of the eastern side, and to
reconstruct the plan of the whole enclosure ; but
on that side, owing to the vicinity of the old canal,
the wall has very likely been destroyed to make
way for the houses of the inhabitants. At the
time when the villa was constructed, nothing
except the monolith and the northern side of the
enclosure could be seen above the sand. One
day, however, in digging for the garden, the work-
men came across another monolith of the same
size as the first, the pair having once stood
symmetrically at the entrance of some edifice.
Concluding that these monuments flanked each
side of an avenue, M. Paponot continued the
excavations in the same direction. The result
was the discovery of two sphinxes in black
granite, placed also on each side of the avenue or
dromos; then, farther on, a shrine or naos in red
sandstone, very well executed, and a large stele
in red granite which was lying flat, and had been
used as the foundation of a Roman wall of baked
bricks.
The discovery of these monuments, which all
belong to the reign of Rameses II., seemed to
offer additional evidence in favour of M. Lepsius's
theory that this was the site of Raamses. M.
Maspero, who published some of them,3 came also
to the conclusion that it was a city of Raamses,
perhaps that of the Israelites, the starting point
of the nation going to conquer the land of
Canaan. This, however, was not yet a well
established fact. The geography of the eastern
part of the Delta is not nearly so well known as
that of Upper Egypt. We are acquainted only
by name with a great number of its cities, canals,
and lakes. Not only in the hieroglyphical lists
of nomes which are inscribed in several temples,
but in the writings of the Greeks and Romans,
we have a great deal of information regarding
the Delta, which was visited by several invading
armies and by a considerable number of traders
1 Lepsius "Chronologic," p. 348; " Zeitschr. fur Mg.
Sprache," 1866, p. 32. * Cf. Plate I,
3 " Eevue Archeologiquo," Nouv. Serie, vol. xxxiv.,
p. 320.