Archaeologists Were Excavating the Site of Two Ancient Forts—And Found a THIRD Ancient Fort

Archaeologists uncovered a third major ancient fort in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
The Tell Abu Seifi site offered prime protection of Egypt’s eastern border.
Limestone-paved roads and a moat were part of the new discovery.

The military significance of the Athar region of North Sinai may have pre-dated Ptolemaic-era and Roman-era fortresses already uncovered at the Tel Abu Seifi archaeological site. We know this thanks to the discovery of what is likely a third—and older—defensive structure for Egypt’s “fortress of the east.”

According to a translated statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Egyptian Archaeological Mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities uncovered not only fresh clues about the way of life at the site during the Ptolemaic and Roman occupation, but also the remains of a third military fortification.

During the excavation, D. Hisham Hussein, head of the mission and director of the General Administration of Sinai Antiquities, said the presence of a moat led archaeologists to discover four pillars of a fort. Those pillars are now being dated, but the team believes the new find is older than the two forts already known to have existed on the site, one dated to the Ptolemaic era from 332 to 30 B.C. and the other from Roman rule during 30 B.C. to 395 A.D.

Sharif Fathi, minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said the fresh discovery shows the secrets of eastern military fortresses of Egypt over multiple centuries, and the importance of the location as a military and industrial center throughout time. When the Nile shifted course, Tell Abu Seifi rose in defensive prominence, overtaking the role of Tell Hebua as the fortress of the east.

The additional information also more fully maps the Egyptian defenses on its eastern border, said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, reaffirming that Sinai was once Egypt’s eastern gateway and its first military stronghold.

Alongside the fort, the mission uncovered housing units, the eastern gates of the two known forts, a limestone road, and remnants of industry. The team believes that the newly found mixture of interconnected rectangular buildings near the third fort were likely used as living quarters for soldiers and then reused over time.

The mission uncovered the distinctive design of the eastern gates of the two known forts, helping show the shape of the entrances. The team also found a more than six-foot-deep moat at the entrance to one of the forts, an element of defensive strategy.

What may not have been so defensive was a road—36 feet wide and over 328 feet long—that led from the outside of the eastern gate of the Roman-era fort to the heart of the residential portion of the site. The road was paved with limestone tiles and covered an older path underneath it, which also included limestone, likely from the Ptolemaic era.

Along the side of the road were more than 500 clay planting circles carefully arranged in rows, likely holes for trees to adorn the fort’s entrance and the soldiers’ dwellings. Mohammed Abdel-Badii, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, said this find tells the story of daily life, especially when the site housed soldiers during the reigns of emperors Diocletian and Maximian from the third century A.D.

At some point near the end of Roman rule, the military stronghold turned more industrial, the team believes, thanks to the discovery of four large kilns used to produce quicklime. The switch from military-first to industry also coincided with the destruction of earlier stone structures at the site.

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