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Tell el-Balamun (; grc, Διοσπόλις ή κάτω) first known as Smabehdet, is an ancient city in Egypt dating from 2400 BC. It was once a port city on an estuary of the Nile, but is now inland of the Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times it was known as Diospolis Inferior. It has a complex of temples.


History

First called Smabehdet or Behdet, the Ancient Egyptian city from 2400 BC or earlier. About 1200 BC, during the
New Kingdom of Egypt The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of Egypt. Radioca ...
, it was named Paiuenamun, meaning "The Island of the od
Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...
". It was the ancient form of the name of Balamun. Tell el-Balamun, located in an agricultural area in the
Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
, it was a port city of an estuary of the Nile (but is now from the Mediterranean Sea due to the advance of the Nile delta). It was the site of a complex of temples. A Ramesside temple enclosure holds temples from the 26th and 30th dynasties for Nekhtnebef, Psamtik I, and Shoshenq III. There was also a cemetery for elite citizens near the temple enclosure. There was also a tomb of Iken, a
Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
ian Vizier, from 900 B.C. In antiquity, the stones for the temples were removed and used for other structures or burnt for lime. The city was continuously occupied until the 6th century A.D., when it was an ancient Roman city with a limestone slab paved road.


Archaeological site

The archaeological site, more than a kilometre in diameter, is a series of mounds up to . What survives within the site are a fortress, other mud structures, and trenches that show the walls of the temples. In 1913,
Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
performed an archaeological excavation, and his unpublished excavation records are now in the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. Francis Ghattas of Mansura University carried out work in 1977 and 1978. The British Museum sponsored excavations beginning in 1991, in partnership with the Egypt Exploration Society, Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Center for Mediterranean Archaeology. The project continued until 2010.


See also

* List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities * List of ancient Egyptian sites


References


Further reading

* Hans Bonnet: ''Diospolis'', in: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte.'' Nikol, Hamburg 2000, , S. 158. * Alan Jeffrey Spencer: ''Excavations at Tell El-Balamun, 1991–1994.'' British Museum Press, London 1996, . * A. J. Spencer: ''Excavations at Tell el-Balamun 1995–1998.'' British Museum Press, London 1999, . * A. J. Spencer: ''Excavations at Tell El-Balamun, 1999–2001.'' British Museum Press, London 2003, .


External links


Tell el-Balamun (english)
{{Authority control Cities in ancient Egypt Archaeological sites in Egypt Populated places in Dakahlia Governorate Roman sites in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Nile Delta Tells (archaeology) Populated places established in the 4th millennium BC 4th-millennium BC establishments