For
the visitor to Tell el-Farama, located in the extreme northwestern
Sinai not really very
far to the east of Port Said, it might be difficult to image this
once being a part of the Nile Delta, but it was in ancient times,
with two branches of of the Nile (Ostium Pelusiacum) surrounding
what was then Pelusium, the eastern gateway to Egypt. Actually, it
occupied the eastern extreme of the Nile Delta, and technically
remains in the delta today. The site has been known by many names.
It has been called Sena and Per-Amun by the Egyptians, Pelouison by
the Greeks, its Aramaic name was Seyan, and it has biblical
significance as Sin. The Greek form of the name is derived from the
term pelos, which refers to mud or silt, reflecting its location
between the two branches of the
Nile.
Egyptologist Jean Cledat excavated at Pelusium in 1910, producing
a sketch map of the site. Beginning in 192, Mohammed Abd El-Maksoud,
who was then the chief inspector for the Northern
Sinai, excavated at
Pelusium. However, due to the proposal for the Peace Canal, a
project that would bring fresh water from the
Nile to the city of El Arish, making the region fertile,
archaeologists launched the "North Sinai Salvage Project" in 1991,
much more
work
has been carried out at Pelusium, as well as Tell el-Makhzan and
Kanais, which were probably parts of "greater Pelusium in ancient
times. The North Sinai Salvage Project divided up these ruins
between teams from Egypt, Canada, Switzerland and Britain.
It was, during ancient times, the eastern most major city of
northern Egypt. There it was of immense strategic importance, both
as a departure point for Egyptian expeditions to Asia and a an entry
point for
foreign
invaders attempting to conquer Egypt. It was perhaps the most
important fortress city along Egypt's ancient
Horus Military road. However, during peaceful times, it was also
an important trading post, and during the
Graeco-Roman
era, it became one of Egypt's busiest ports, second only to
Alexandria. On the west side of Pelusim, commercial life is
illustrated by traces of large scale purple dye production, from
murex seashells. Nevertheless, its primary importance to Egypt was
in its role as a border fortress.
Hence,
Pelusium has an interesting history, much of it involving violent
confrontation, though in some instance the history is spotted with
fanciful tails. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib (720-715 BC),
during the 25th
Dynasty, intent on invading Egypt, approached Pelusium, but
withdrew without a fight, according to
Herodotus
and Strabo. We
are told that a host of field mice gnawed the bow-strings and shield
straps of the Assyrians as they slept. Afterwards, the Assyrians
fled, and many of them were slain in their flight. Herodotus records
seeing in the temple of Hephaestos at Memphis, a statue of the
Egyptian king holding a mouse in his hand, thus
recording
the victory over the Assyrians. Though the Egyptian king is referred
to as Sethos, this would have been during the reign of
Piye.
Then, in 525 BC, a decisive battle was fought near Pelusium which
ultimately resulted in the Persians, under the leadership of
Cambyses II, taking control of Egypt from Psammetichus III.
Pelusium itself, according to legend, fell without a fight when the
Persians drove cats, sacred to the local goddess
Bast,
ahead of their advancing army.
Herodotus
visited the site of the battle and informs us that the ground was
littered with the bones of the
combatants.
He claimed that the skulls of the Egyptians were easily
distinguishable from those of the Persians by their superior
hardness, a condition he claims caused by the fact that the
Egyptians shaved their heads from infancy, while the Persians
covered theirs with folds of cloth or linen.
According to Sisculus, in 373 BC, Pelusium was threatened by
Pharnabaza, satrap (governor) of Phrygia, and Iphicrates, the
commander of the Athenian armament, but were driven off by
Nectanebo I, who had added
water
defenses to the site, and had also blocked up the navigable channels
of the
Nile. Nevertheless, the city was attacked and taken by the
Persians in 169 BC. At the time, the city had a garrison of 5,000
Greek mercenaries under the command of Philophron, At first the
defense was successful, but then
Nectanebo II, the last native king of Egypt during ancient
times, made the disastrous decision to engage in a pitched battle
resulting in, according to Siculus, his troops being cut to pieces.
In
333 BC, Pelusium opened its gates to
Alexander the Great,
who the Pelusiuns as a liberator of Egypt. After Alexander the
Great's death in 323 BC, one of his generals, Ptolemy, seized Egypt,
kidnapped the body of Alexander the Great and brought it to Egypt by
way of Pelusiam. Afterwards, Pelusium would see considerably more
and better documented action. In 173 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes
devastated the troops of
Ptolemy VI Philometor beneath the walls of Pelusium. For
sometime afterwards, the city remained in Syrian hands, at least
until the fall of the Syrian kingdom, if not somewhat before. Se
know that in 55 BC it belonged to Egypt when, Mark Anthony, as a
cavalry general to the Roman proconsul Gabinius, defeated the
Egyptian army and too the city. At Pelusium in 48 BC,
Cleopatra VII,
the last Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, led an army of Syrian and Arab
mercenaries against her brother
and
husband, Ptolemy XIII. At the same time the civil war between Caesar
and Pompey was consuming Rome. Losing at Pharsalos, Pompey fled to
Pelusium to seek refuge with the pharaoh. But on September 28th of
that year, Ptolemy had Pompey murdered and decapitated.
After a great plague in 524 AD, the city was better known under
its Coptic name of Peremoun. In its Arabic version the name is
preserved today in the name of the archaeological site, Tell el-Farama,
while the nearby village of Balouza retains the ancient name
Pelusium. In 619 Pelusium was attacked and conquered by a Persian
army under Khuzran, and in 640 it fell into the hands of Amr Ibn
al-As, an Arab soldier who had fought with Muhammed in the conquest
of Palestine and, in 642. He became the first Muslim governor of
Egypt. In the twelfth century the city was attacked by Crusaders,
first by King
Baldwin
of Flanders who died at or near Pelusium in 1118 from food
poisoning, and later by King Amalric of Jerusalem who led an
invasion against Saladin in 1169. After that the city sank into
obscurity.
In reality, we know very little about Pelusium, despite its
apparent importance and size during ancient times, and for that
mater the many references to it in written accounts. We know from
the likes of
Herodotus and
Strabo, as well as from Greek papyri that is was a bustling port
city with quays, storage facilities, customs offices,
industrial
areas, textile workshops, pottery kilns, theaters, baths and race
tracks, as well as religious and military installations.
Today, this archaeological region, almost four miles in length,
consists of a number of sites, mostly dating to the late Roman
period. They include thermal baths with a water tower, a well
preserved theater and, situated in the center, a large roman
fortress. Archaeologists also believe that they have found the
Hippodrome, the racetrack, as well as what appears to be a few fish
tanks. Only recently a harbor wall, some 300 meters long, has also
been discovered. There are also at least several necropolises.
Nearby is the site of a huge church complex, including a basilica,
crypt, baptistery and courtyard, dating to the fifth and sixth
centuries. For the better part
of
the last millennium all these structures, except a temple to Zeus
Kassios (a conflation of the Greek god Zeus and the oriental
mountain, or weather-god, Kassios) and the walls of a fortress, were
hidden by sand from the eyes of the site's rare visitors.
The fortress covers 20 acres, measuring about 200 by 400 meters. Its walls averaged about seven feet thick, and were set with 36 towers and three gates. However, the current fortress can only be dated to the late sixth century AD. Traces can still be seen of its destruction by fire, which may have been caused by the Persian invasion of 619.
More research is needed on Pelusiac religion, its curious onion
taboo, and sacred architecture. The cult of Zeus Kassios, Pelusium's
main deity, seems to have originated in Syria as a Graeco-Roman
adaptation of the Semitic god Baal Zephon. St. Jerome and the second
century BC. Greek philosopher and physician made disparaging remarks
about Pelusiac priests of Kassios, who refused to eat onions and
garlic, which were known to cause flatulence and thus were
associated
with demons. A fragment of a dedicatory inscription naming Emperor
Hadrian, discovered by Jean Cledat, suggests that the temple of Zeus
Kassios at Pelusium was erected in the second century AD
It should be noted that Pelusium was not the only fortress located along the Horus Route in what is today the northern Sinai. Of the Ptolemaic defence line in the dune area laong the old coastline, south of Pelusium, the forts of Magdolos (Tell el-Herr) and Sile (Tell Abu Seifa) are also easily accessible. East of Pelusieum, the military settlement of Gerra (Mahammediya) guarded the entrance to Egypt from the third century BC onwards.
As a final note, Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman artifacts unearthed during excavations at Pelusium and other sites along the Horus Road route are on display at the Centre for Sinai Studies at Qantara West.
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Last Updated: 12/05/2006