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28-578: In ancient times, this was a major communication artery for caravan trade between Egypt and points to the east. The Canal of the Pharaohs was built there. A little water still flows along the wadi. The current Sweet Water Canal also flows along the wadi. The Arabic name "Wadi Tumilat" is believed to reflect the existence in the area, in ancient times, of an important temple of the god Atum (Old Egyptian pr-itm , 'House of Atum', changed over time into 'Tumilat', as well as into ' Pithom '). The old name of

56-411: A canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. Strabo also wrote that Sesostris started to build

84-517: A canal, as did Pliny the Elder (see quote further down). However, the canal was probably first cut or at least begun by Necho II (r. 610–595 BC), in the late 7th century BC, and it was either re-dug or possibly completed by Darius the Great (r. 550–486 BC). Classical sources disagree as to when it was finally completed. Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions comprise five Egyptian monuments, including

112-718: A navigable canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Red Sea . Necho's Canal was the earliest precursor of the Suez Canal , and it went through Wadi Tumilat. It was in connection with a new activity that Necho founded a new city of Per-Temu Tjeku which translates as 'The House of Atum of Tjeku' at Tell el-Maskhuta. Around 1820, Muhammad Ali of Egypt , the Ottoman Governor of Egypt , brought 500 Syrians to

140-626: A team from the German Institute in Cairo conducted a survey of Wadi Tumilat. Later on, some Hyksos tombs were also discovered in the area at Tell es-Sahaba . Modern excavations at Tell el-Maskhuta were carried out by the University of Toronto "Wadi Tumilat Project" under the direction of John S. Holladay Jr. They worked over five seasons between 1978 and 1985. As many as 35 sites of archaeological significance have been identified in

168-479: A trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes. Although Herodotus (2.158) tells us Darius I continued work on the canal, Aristotle (Aristot. met. I 14 P 352b.), Strabo (Strab. XVII 1, 25 C 804. 805.), and Pliny the Elder (Plin. n. h. VI 165f.) all say that he failed to complete it, while Diodorus Siculus does not mention a completion of the canal by Necho II. After

196-767: Is a location mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible . James K. Hoffmeier believes that the 'way of Shur' was located along the Wadi Tumilat — an arable strip of land to the east of the Nile Delta , serving as the ancient transit route between Ancient Egypt and Canaan across the Sinai Peninsula . When Hagar ran away from Sarai ( Abram's wife, her owner), "the Angel of the Lord found her ... by

224-491: Is credited by some for being the first to solve the problem of keeping the Nile free of salt water when his engineers invented the lock around 274/273 BC. The canal was reconstructed by Roman emperor Trajan , who moved its mouth on the Nile further south to what is now Old Cairo , and named it Amnis Traianus after himself. Remains of the massive stone walls that made up the entrance to Trajan's canal have been found under

252-637: The Caspian Sea and then to India . Following the discovery of a direct sea route to India through the Cape of Good Hope by Portugal, the Venetians and Mamluks negotiated with each other to fund the construction of a new canal in order to weaken Portuguese trade. However, the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim I and its subsequent annexation ended any hopes for Venice to maintain their trade dominance in

280-456: The pharaohs . According to Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions and Herodotus , the first opening of the canal was under Persian king Darius the Great , but later ancient authors like Aristotle , Strabo , and Pliny the Elder claim that he failed to complete the work. Another possibility is that it was finished in the Ptolemaic period under Ptolemy II , when engineers solved

308-652: The Chalouf Stele, that commemorate the construction and completion of the canal linking the Nile River with the Red Sea by Darius I of Persia . They were located along the Darius Canal through the valley of Wadi Tumilat and probably recorded sections of the canal as well. In the second half of the 19th century, French cartographers discovered the remnants of the north–south section of Darius Canal past

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336-786: The Mediterranean. Sokollu Mehmed Pasha , the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1565 to 1579, also considered constructing a new canal to reduce Portuguese dominance in the Indian Ocean and connect the divided Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, but it was deemed too expensive to construct and was cancelled. During the Egyptian expedition , Napoleon Bonaparte learnt about

364-538: The Nile, known as the Khalij , continued to serve a local function as part of Cairo's water infrastructure up until the late 1890s, when it was completely filled in and converted into what is now Port Said Street. Thereafter, the land routes to tranship camel caravans' goods were from Alexandria to ports on the Red Sea or the northern Byzantine silk route through the Caucasus Mountains transhipping on

392-556: The Pharaohs The Canal of the Pharaohs , also called the Ancient Suez Canal or Necho's Canal , is the forerunner of the Suez Canal , constructed in ancient times and kept in use, with intermissions, until being closed in 767 AD for strategic reasons during a rebellion. It followed a different course from its modern counterpart, by linking the Nile to the Red Sea via the Wadi Tumilat . Work began under

420-578: The Wadi and equipped them with animals and labor to construct 1,000 sakias for the cultivation of mulberry trees for sericulture . The irrigation system was repaired by cleaning and deepening the existing canals. Labor was provided by forcing peasants to work. Tell Shaqafiya in the Wadi is also associated with the Canal and its operation. The site of Tell el Gebel is mostly of the Roman period . In 1930,

448-581: The Wadi. The three large tells in the Wadi are Tell el-Maskhuta, Tell er-Retabah, and Tell Shaqafiya. Tell er-Retabah has been investigated by the archaeologist Hans Goedicke of Johns Hopkins University . There are several biblical references to the area of Wadi Tumilat. For example, the ancient Pithom is believed to be here. The western end of the Wadi Tumilat is identified as part of the Land of Goshen . Wadi Tumilat—an arable strip of land serving as

476-487: The ancient transit route between Egypt and Canaan across the Sinai Peninsula —is also seen by scholars as the biblical "Way of Shur ". Biblical scholar Edouard Naville identified the area of Wadi Tumilat as Sukkot (Tjeku), the 8th Lower Egypt nome . This location is also mentioned in the Bible. 30°32′58″N 31°57′49″E  /  30.5494°N 31.9636°E  / 30.5494; 31.9636 Canal of

504-529: The canal as the "River of Trajan". Diocletian's fortress enveloped the Nile entrance of the canal and protected it on either side. The canal passed between two massive round towers and then through the middle of the fortress. In later centuries, this entry was blocked with new wall constructed between the towers. The canal was difficult to maintain and by the time of the Muslim conquest in 641 AD, it had fallen out of use and into disrepair. Islamic texts discuss

532-452: The canal in 1799 when his surveyor, Jacques-Marie Le Père , discovered the remains of the canal. Napoleon considered rebuilding the canal but ultimately cancelled it. After over a millennium since its closure in 767, the Suez Canal re-established a direct sea route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea in 1869. Shur (Bible) Shur ( Hebrew : שור , romanized :  Šūr , sometimes rendered in translations as Sur )

560-635: The canal, which they say had been silted up, but was reopened in 641 or 642 AD by 'Amr ibn al-'As , the commander of the Muslim army in Egypt. The new canal dug by Amr was excavated further north, joining the Nile close to what is now the Sayyida Zaynab neighbourhood of Cairo. Its connection to the Red Sea remained open until 767, when it was closed to stop supplies reaching Mecca and Medina , which were in rebellion . The canal's remaining section near

588-406: The death of Alexander the Great , the general Ptolemy gained control of Egypt , declared himself Pharaoh and began the Ptolemaic dynasty . His son, the 2nd leader of that dynasty, Ptolemy II took up the canal work again, but also stopped because of the differences of water level. Diodorus, however, reports that it was completed by Ptolemy II after being fitted with a water lock . Ptolemy II

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616-778: The east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake . Pliny the Elder wrote: 165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made

644-489: The north-eastern border of Egypt, giving its name to a wilderness extending from Egypt toward Philistia ( Gen . 16:7; 20:1; 25:18; Ex . 15:22). The name was probably given to it from the wall which the Egyptians built to defend their frontier on the north-east from the desert tribes. This wall or line of fortifications extended from Pelusium to Heliopolis ." [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

672-485: The present-day Coptic Church of Saint Sergius and the Coptic Church of Saint George. The walls are 6 metres (20 ft) thick and are set 40 metres (130 ft) apart. Where the canal joined the Nile, Trajan constructed a harbor and fortifications, which Diocletian expanded in the 3rd century AD along with the construction of the present Babylon Fortress . In the 2nd century AD, Claudius Ptolemy refers to

700-511: The problem of overcoming the difference in height through canal locks . At least as far back as Aristotle there have been suggestions that perhaps as early as the 12th Dynasty , Pharaoh Senusret III (1878–1839 BC), called Sesostris by the Greeks, may have started a canal joining the River Nile with the Red Sea. In his Meteorology , Aristotle wrote: One of their kings tried to make

728-738: The valley is Wadi as-Sadir ( Arabic : وادي السدير ), which is also " the land of Goshen " in the Arabic translation of the Pentateuch . Wadi Tumilat has the ruins of several ancient settlements. The earliest site excavated is that of Kafr Hassan Dawood, which dates from the Predynastic period to the Early Dynastic Period . Several sites feature material the Second Intermediate Period , when Wadi Tumilat

756-584: The well in the way to Shur" ( Book of Genesis , Genesis 16:7 , KJV). Shur is also mentioned in 1 Samuel 15:7 — "Then Saul slaughtered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt." According to the Book of Exodus ( Exodus 15:22–23 ), Marah is located in the "wilderness of Shur". Easton's Bible Dictionary (1893) says that Shur is "a part, probably, of the Arabian desert , on

784-637: Was connected with the Levant , including Tell el-Retaba , Tell el-Maskhuta , Tell el-Shaqafiya , Tell el-Kuʿ . Late in the New Kingdom of Egypt period, there was a well fortified site at Tell el-Retabah . But then, in the Saite Dynasty period, the major settlement and fort were moved east to Tell el-Maskhuta , only 12 km (7.5 mi) to the east. Necho II (610–595 BC) initiated—but may have never completed—the ambitious project of cutting

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