What Egyptian archaelogists say was the headquarters of the Pharaonic army charged with guarding the northeastern borders of Egypt for more than 1,500 years has been discovered, the government said Wednesday.
"Initial studies at the site prove that this fort was the headquarters of the Egyptian army from the time of the New Kingdom until the Ptolemaic period," it said. The New Kingdom began in about 1570 B.C. and the Ptolemaic period ended with the death of Cleopatra in the first century B.C.
"The archaeological features of this fort confirm the inscriptions on ancient Egyptian temples showing the shape of the city of Tharu, which lay at the start of the Horus military road," the statement added.
The fortress and adjoining town, which they identify with the ancient name Tharu, lies in the Sinai peninsula about 3 km (2 miles) northeast of the modern town of Qantara, Egyptian archaeologist Mohamed Abdel Maksoud told Reuters.
The town sat at the start of a military road joining the Nile Valley to the Levant, parts of which were under Egyptian control for much of the period, the government's Supreme Council for Antiquities said in a statement.
The archaeologists, led by Abdel Maksoud, have been working on forts along the road since 1986 but it was inscriptions found this year which clinched the identification, he said.
The inscriptions mention three Pharaohs -- Tuthmosis II, who ruled from about 1512 B.C. and who built one of the military installations along the route, Seti I and Ramses II, who between them ruled Egypt from 1318 to 1237 B.C.
The statement said the site contains the first New Kingdom temple ever found in northern Sinai, and warehouses where the ancient Egyptian army stored grain and weapons, as well as ovens, seals and earthenware vessels.
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article