We touch firm ground in the statement that the Israelites built "for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses," for the names of these cities are well known from the hieroglyphic inscriptions, and their sites have been satisfactorily identified by Professor Naville. Pithom is the city which the Egyptians called Pa-Åtem, i.e., the "House of the god Atem," its site being marked by the ruins called "Tall al-Maskhûṭah,” at the eastern end of the Wâdî Tâmîlât, and Raamses is none other than Tanis, the Zoan of the Bible, and the Sân of Arabic writers. When Rameses II came to the throne he continued at Tanis the great work which his father had begun; he repaired or rebuilt parts of the walls and temples, he strengthened its defences, and he either founded or refounded a temple in honour of the gods Amen, Ptaḥ, Harmachis, and Sutekh. He usurped large numbers of statues and monuments which had been made by the kings his predecessors, and during his lifetime at least the whole city was spoken of as "Pa-Rāmessu,” i.e., "the house of Rameses." Rameses II was the builder king par excellence, and he scrupled not to compel the alien peoples settled in the Delta to join the corvée of the day. 66 66 66 In Exodus v, 6-14, we read that "Pharaoh commanded the "taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: "let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale "of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they "be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men, "that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain "words. So the people were scattered abroad throughout "all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. "And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. And the officers "of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye "not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore?" When we remember that Rameses II built a wall from Memphis to Pelusium to keep out of Egypt the hordes of nomad Semites who infested the Eastern Desert, and that he dug the great canal which joined the Nile and the Red Sea, to say nothing of the great building operations which he carried out in stone, there seems to be no reason to 66 doubt that the passage quoted above accurately describes the miserable conditions of the Israelites in the Delta under Rameses the Great. On the other hand, the narrative in Exodus gives us to understand that the oppression of the Israelites took place after Joseph's death, and because another Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph, sat on the throne of Egypt. But the name of Joseph's wife, Asenath, and that of her father, Potipherah, and Joseph's title Zaphnath-Paaneah, all belong to a period which falls about 250 years after the Exodus, which probably took place under Menephthah, and we are therefore driven to the conclusion that the first few verses of the Book of Exodus and Genesis xli, 45, belong to a much later period than the story of the Exodus given in the Bible. These passages and the early chapters of the Book of Exodus were, in their original forms, the work of a writer who possessed accurate local knowledge of the Eastern Delta, and the assigning of late names to Joseph's wife and her father is the work of a later edition. It must never be forgotten that there is no mention whatsoever in the Egyptian inscriptions of an exodus of Israelites, and up to the present no monument of any kind has been found which can be said truthfully to refer in any way to their sojourn in Egypt. No surprise need be felt at this, for it was not the custom of Egyptian kings to commemorate the deeds of the peoples who were subject to them. That a great exodus of Israelites from Egypt took place cannot be doubted, but it is equally beyond doubt that the story of it in its present form is the work of one whose knowledge of the sequence of events was incomplete. The date of the Exodus and the route which was followed by the children of Israel on their departure from Egypt have given rise to endless discussions and theories, none of which, however, explain away the difficulties of the Bible narrative. The exodus may have taken place 1270 B.C., 1314 B.C., or 1335 B.C, but the all-important fact to be considered is that, speaking historically, it could only have happened on the scale described in the Book of Exodus, in the reign of Menephthah during the period of the rising of the Libyans and others against the Egyptian power. As for the route they followed, the Israelites, we know, were living in Goshen, i.e., in that portion of the Delta and of the Wâdî Ṭûmîlât which has Zakâzîk on the north Balbês on the south, and the modern Tall al-Kabîr on the east; and we know that they set out from the Wâdî Tûmîlât. When they did so, two ways were open to them. They could either go into Syria by way of Tanis, or they could go eastwards through the district of Rameses, and so make their way to the northern end of the Red Sea, which it is supposed reached nearly as far as the modern town of Isma'îlîyah. Some think that having arrived at Succoth, the Egyptian Thukut, they passed into the desert at Etham, and then turned to the north, whilst others think that they turned to the south. The Bible narrative says they went to the south, in obedience to the command, “Turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over "against Baal-zephon " (Exodus xiv, 2). These frontier towns or fortresses were, no doubt, well known at the time when the narrative was written, but they cannot now be identified with certainty. If the Israelites marched southwards, three ways were open to them to cross into the desert. The first way passed between Lake Timsaḥ and the Bitter Lakes, the second lay to the south of the Bitter Lakes, and the third way was quite close to the modern town of Suez. The late Dr. Brugsch put forward a theory of the route of the Exodus which made the Israelites to pass through the Field of Zoan, and by the fortresses of Etham, Migdol, near Pelusium, the great Sirbonian Bog, and Pi-hahiroth, and so into Syria. The great drawback to this theory is the extreme improbability that the Israelites would have ventured to march straight into the line of strong Egyptian fortresses which had been built on the eastern frontier of the Delta, and which clearly it was to their interest to avoid. Moreover, we know that Etham and Migdol were common terms for "fortress," and there must have been several Ethams and Migdols between Goshen and Syria. Taken together the known facts indicate that the Israelites made their way into the desert by the nearest route possible, and that route probably lay through some part of the country now occupied by the modern Lake Timsaḥ, which is relatively close to the eastern end of the Wâdî Ţûmîlât. The narrative of the Book of Exodus calls the water which the Israelites crossed the "Yam Suph," i.e., the 66 sea of reeds," a name which would never have been given to the sea in general; and there is no doubt that they called the water by that name because it was of considerable extent, and because it contained reeds. The identification of the "sea of reeds" with the Red Sea was made by someone who knew nothing about the geography of the Isthmus of Suez, but knowing that the Israelites had passed over a vast stretch of water, he assumed that that water must be the Red Sea. The views on the subject of Goshen and the route of the Exodus which Professor Naville has enunciated deserve careful attention, for they are based on first-hand knowledge derived from the results of the excavations which he made in the Wâdî Tûmîlât, where he discovered the remains of the store city of Pithom. He has treated the subject of the Exodus and the identifications of the cities mentioned in the Bible narrative with common sense and moderation. In the present state of Egyptological knowledge it is impossible to "settle" the difficulties which beset the Exodus question, but the present writer, who has gone over the routes proposed both by Professor Naville and Sir William Dawson, thinks that, if the matter is to be considered from a practical standpoint, the only possible way for the Israelites to escape quickly into the Etham desert was by a passage across some portion of the ground which is now covered by Lake Timsah. Recent investigations into the geography of the Eastern Frontier of Egypt suggest that the region at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez has changed very considerably since the early centuries of the Christian Era, and that it is impossible to identify satisfactorily all the sites mentioned in the Book of Exodus in connection with the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. It seems, however, to be generally admitted that the Gulf of Suez extended further to the north than it does to-day, and some think that the sea reached nearly as far as the northern end of Lake Timsaḥ. III.-PORT SAID, ISMA'ÎLÎYAH, SUEZ, AND Cook's Office.-Shâri'a Sultân Hussên. Hotels.-Casino Palace Hotel, Eastern Exchange Hotel, Marina Palace Hotel, Continental Hotel. Post Offices in the Rue al-Nil (Egyptian) and Rue Eugénie (French). Telegraph Office of the Eastern Telegraph Co. on the Shâri'a Sutlân Hussên. Telegraph Office (Egyptian).—Main Street. Tramways through the town and to the Arab quarter and cemetery. Cabs. By the course 4 piastres, extra at night; per hour 12 piastres, at night 15 piastres. British Consulate.-Rue al-Nil. U.S. Consulate.-Rue al- Nîl. Churches.--Church of the Epiphany; Ste. Eugénie (R.C.). Motor Cars. By the course, 10 piastres; per hour, 80 piastres, by night and day. 6. Port Sa'îd to Cairo, Port Sa'îd is a town of very recent growth, and it owes its being entirely to the Suez Canal; in 1917 its population was 70,873, including 15,741 Europeans. About sixty years ago the site on which Port Sa‘îd now stands was a spot whereon dwelt a few Arabs, who gained their livelihood as fishermen. When the engineers of the Suez Canal Company commenced operations on this narrow strip of sand there was barely sufficient room to erect a few tents and sheds. At first wooden houses, raised on piles, were constructed; and the dredgings from the harbour and from the channel leading to the mouth of the canal were employed for reclaiming and extending this sand-bank. When the site for a port in the Mediterranean, at the entrance to the Suez Canal, had to be selected, it was difficult to find on the flat shore a spot possessing some natural advantages that might prove of use in the construction of a harbour. The reason which finally led the Company's engineers to select the position which Port Sa'id now occupies was that the line of deep water was found to be less distant from the shore at that point-30 feet of water at 2,870 yardsthan at any other in the vicinity of that part of the Gulf of Pelusium. The port is formed by two breakwaters or moles; the western mole is about 2,726 yards long, and the eastern 1,962 yards, and the area which they enclose is triangular, and about 560 acres. These moles are 26 yards wide at the base, 12 yards high, 6 yards wide on the summit, and the slope of the sides is 1 in 1. Each block weighs 22 tons, and cost about £17. At the entrance to the port the depth of water is rather more than 30 feet, but the uniform depth of water in the harbour is 26 feet. On the west mole is a lighthouse about 175 feet high, and the flash of its electric light can be seen on a clear night at a distance of about 20 miles. Beyond the lighthouse, on the same. mole, is a fine statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was born in 1805 and died in 1894, and who is famous as the builder of the Suez Canal. In Port Sa'id there is little to be seen which is not connected with shipping and the Canal, but the coaling operations which are here carried out on a very large scale, however unpleasant to the traveller, are always a source of interest. Loaded barges are brought alongside the vessel which is to be coaled, but before they are made fast gangways are run up, and scores of men, each bearing a basket |