LAND OF GOSHEN

Land of Goshen in Egypt, courtesy, commons.wikimedia.org

The Land of Goshen in Egypt stretches from the east Nile Delta in the north, to the northeast of Cairo in the south, and then stretching east covering roughly the entire northeastern corner of Egypt proper. This area had long been farmed by the ancient Egyptians since the Exodus, and later, their descendants, the Copts. However, since the 7^th century, it was taken over by Arabs. Today, few Copts dwell there in a sea of hostile Arab settlers. The closest location for a major Coptic community is now found in Cairo as well as in several locations in other parts of the Delta.

Goshen is named in the Bible as the place in Egypt given by Pharaoh to the Hebrews who had joined their brother Joseph who was vizier over Egypt at the time (Book of Genesis, Genesis 45:9-10), and the land from which they later left at the time of the Exodus. After the death of Joseph and those of his generation, the following generations of Israelites had become populous in number. The Egyptians feared potential integration or takeover, so they enslaved the Israelites and took away their human rights. Four hundred and thirty years later, to the day, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, encamping at Succoth, the first waypoint of the Exodus.

Goshen is the home to the ancient sites of Pithom, Raamses, and On (Heliopolis), major cities in ancient Egypt. Regarding Pithom, multiple references in ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew Bible sources exist for this city, but its exact location remains somewhat uncertain. A number of scholars identified it as the later archaeological site of Tell El Maskhuta. Others identified it as the earlier archeological site of Tell El Retabeh. In the Greco-Roman period, the city was called Heroöpolis. Since it was located nearly due north of the Bitter Lakes, Heroöpolis was of sufficient importance, as a trading station. It was the capital of the 8th nome of Lower Egypt.

In the spring of 1883, archaeologist Edouard Naville believed he had identified Pithom as the archaeological site Tell El Maskhuta. The site of Pithom, as identified by Naville, is at the eastern edge of Wadi Tumilat, south-west of Ismaïlia. Petrie agreed with this identification. John Holladay, a more recent investigator of the site, also supports this opinion.

More recent analyses have demonstrated that the designation for the temple of Atum, pr-itm, can be found in inscriptions at both sites—both at Tell El Retaba and at Tell El Maskhuta. This seems to demonstrate that the name 'Pithom' was used originally for the earlier site, Tell El Retaba, before it was abandoned. And when the newer city of Tel El Maskhuta was built, the same name was applied to it as well – as the temple of Atum was moved to El Maskhuta. Thus, in effect, 'Pithom' was moved to a new location, which phenomenon is attested with some other cities as well, such as Migdol.

Pi-Ramesses was the new capital built by the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) at Qantir, near the old site of Avaris. The city had served as a summer palace under Seti I (c. 1290–1279 BC), and may have been founded by Ramesses I (c. 1292–1290 BC) while he served under Horemheb.

In 1884, Flinders Petrie arrived in Egypt to begin his excavations there. His first dig was at Tanis, where he arrived with 170 workmen. Later in the 1930s, the ruins at Tanis were explored by Pierre Montet.

The masses of broken Ramesside stonework at Tanis led archaeologists to identify it as Pi-Ramesses. Yet it eventually came to be recognized that none of these monuments and inscriptions originated at the site.

In the 1960s, Manfred Bietak, recognised that Pi-Ramesses was known to have been located on the then easternmost branch of the Nile. He painstakingly mapped all the branches of the ancient Delta and established that the Pelusiac branch was the easternmost during Ramesses' reign while the Tanitic branch (i.e. the branch on which Tanis was located) did not exist at all. Excavations were therefore begun at the site of the highest Ramesside pottery location, Tell el-Dab'a and Qantir.

Although there were no traces of any previous habitation visible on the surface, discoveries soon identified Tell el-Dab'a as the Hyksos capital Avaris. Qantir was recognized as the site of the Ramesside capital Pi-Ramesses.^[3]

Heliopolis, orginially the town of On, was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and a major religious center. It is now located in Ayn Shams, a northeastern suburb of Cairo.

The major surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the obelisk of the Temple of Ra-Atum erected by Senusret I of Dynasty XII. It still stands in its original position, now within Al-Masalla in Al-Matariyyah, Cairo.

Today, there are many cities and towns in the area that have kept their indigenous Coptic names, but are popularly referred to by the names given to them by Arab settlers. Mit Ghamr, for example, has a large Coptic Orthodox Church, the Marigirgis Church. It is said that during the great fire in 1920 which destroyed much of the town, the church was saved when the spirit of Saint George appeared atop this church on his horse. Other locations include: Onufe (Menouf), Tantato (Tanta), Zewete (Zefta), Limne Nikedjow (Lake Burullus), Dishairi (El Mahalla El Kubra), Damiadi (Damietta), Bisewun (Basyoun), Banaho (Benha), Jokejik (Zagazig), Tanis (Shentana el Haggar).