Tell el-Balamun (; ) 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
The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...
, but is now inland of the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
. In ancient times it was known as Diospolis Inferior. It has a complex of temples.
History
First called Smabehdet or Behdet, the
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian city from 2400 BC or earlier. About 1200 BC, during the
New Kingdom of Egypt
The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of History of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth, ...
, it was named Paiuenamun, meaning "The Island of the od
Amun
Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...
". 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 (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...
, it was a port city of an estuary of the
Nile
The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...
(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
The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties. Through radioc ...
temple enclosure holds temples from the
26th
26 (twenty-six) is the natural number following 25 and preceding 27.
In mathematics
*26 is the seventh discrete semiprime (2 \times 13) and the fifth with 2 as the lowest non-unitary factor thus of the form (2.q), where q is a higher prime.
...
Psamtik I
Wahibre Psamtik I (Ancient Egyptian: ) was the first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Saite period, ruling from the city of Sais in the Nile delta between 664 and 610 BC. He was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian E ...
, and
Shoshenq III
The modern designation Shoshenq III refers to King Usermaatre Setepnamun Shoshenq Sibaste Meryamun Netjerheqaon, who reigned for about four decades, c. 841–c. 803/799 BC or c. 831–c. 791/788 BC. His highest attested regnal year is Year 39. A ...
. There was also a cemetery for elite citizens near the temple enclosure. There was also a tomb of Iken, a
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') 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, the Nile River split into sev ...
ian
Vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
, 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 Egyptology, Egyptologist who Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered Tomb of Tutankhamun, the intact tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty Pharaoh ...
performed an archaeological excavation, and his unpublished excavation records are now in the
Griffith Institute
The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient ...
,
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. Francis Ghattas of Mansura University carried out work in 1977 and 1978. The
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
sponsored excavations beginning in 1991, in partnership with the
Egypt Exploration Society
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization founded in 1882 for the purpose of financing and facilitating the exploration of significant archeological sites in Egypt and Sudan, founded by writer Amelia Edwards and coin ...
,
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
and Polish Center for Mediterranean Archaeology. The project continued until 2010.
List of ancient Egyptian sites
This is a list of ancient Egyptian sites, throughout Egypt and Nubia. Sites are listed by their classical name whenever possible, if not by their modern name, and lastly with their ancient name if no other is available.
Nomes
A nome is a s ...
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, .