Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

MIGDOL.

123

It is important here to notice that the long narrow lake
which is the most eastern of the whole series of back-
waters, the ancient Lake Serbonis, does not seem to
have changed its shape since the time of the classical
geographers. Its southern shore is protected by sand
hills, and it is free from the disturbing element of the
Nile streams. Unlike the rest, it is fed only by the ocean.

The place of Migdol may be determined by the
evidence already alluded to, that of the Itinerary of
Antoninus, according to which it stood at a distance
of twelve Roman miles from Pelusium. This would fix
its site at the mound now called Tell-es-Samoot, where
Dr. Brugsch places it. The modern name preserves
the ancient Egyptian Samut.

Migdol is mentioned in the Bible as near the third
camping-place of the Israelites (Exod. xiv. 2; Numb,
xxxiii. 7). The Hebrew name Migdol recurs in the
Maktal of the Egyptian monuments, the place having,
like Zoan, a double name, one Semitic and the other
(Samut) Egyptian. The classical form is Magdolos or
Magdolon. In an inscription of a king of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, Dr. Brugsch finds the limits of Egypt defined as
from Elephantine to Samut (Hist. i. p. 498)- Similarly