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Egyptian Fortress on Road to Canaan Revealed

Archaeologists have uncovered more remnants from Tharu, the largest known fortified city in ancient Egypt, which sits near the modern-day border town of Rafah.
The fortress, also known as Tjaru or Tharo, covered about 31 acres (13 hectares), Egyptian authorities say. Its discovery near the Suez Canal was announced in July 2007.
Tharu helped guard the empire’s eastern front in the Sinai Peninsula and served as a military cornerstone for Egypt’s ancient leaders.
“It was built [more than] 3,000 years ago, and it was an important and strategic point,” said Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The fort’s remains were found as part of a project that began in 1986 to explore the “Horus Way,” an ancient military road that connected 11 fortresses linking Egypt and Palestine.
The path also served as an entry point for traders coming from Asia.
“This is the only way to enter Egypt by land coming from the east,” said Fayza Haikal, a professor of archaeology and Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. “It was the way not only for armies but also commercial [expeditions].”
So far Egyptian authorities have discovered four fortresses along the Horus Way, which essentially formed the same line as Egypt’s current eastern border (see map).

The story continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries

Video: Priestly Blessing

SourceFlix Productions has a 5-minute video on the Jewish Priestly Blessing. The video includes footage of the blessing at the Western Wall, an interview with a priest, and an explanation by Gabriel Barkay about his discovery of the priestly blessing on a silver amulet in Jerusalem. The video is interesting and instructive.

Tagged Jerusalem

Many Tourists in Israel

My observation in the past couple of weeks of travels around Israel is that there has not been this many tourists since 2000. An Arutz-7 story suggests that this is more than a feeling.

The Ministry of Tourism reports that 290,000 tourists visited Israel in April 2008, an amount similar to that recorded in Israel’s record-breaking tourism year, 2000. The totals for this past April were 26% over April 2006, as well as 41% more than April 2007, when tourism was still negatively affected by the Second Lebanon War eight months earlier. During the first four months of 2008, 936,000 tourists arrived in Israel – an increase of 43% from the same period in 2007, and 34% more than the same period in 2006. The current pace of growth is consistent with Tourism Ministry goals to attract 2.8 million tourists to Israel this year. However, Tourism Ministry Director General Sha’ul Tzemach says that this blessing places in bold relief the increasing shortage of available guest rooms in Israel.

The story continues here. If you’re planning to bring a group, you would do best to get hotel reservations more than a year in advance.

Many Tourists in Israel

My observation in the past couple of weeks of travels around Israel is that there has not been this many tourists since 2000. An Arutz-7 story suggests that this is more than a feeling.

The Ministry of Tourism reports that 290,000 tourists visited Israel in April 2008, an amount similar to that recorded in Israel’s record-breaking tourism year, 2000. The totals for this past April were 26% over April 2006, as well as 41% more than April 2007, when tourism was still negatively affected by the Second Lebanon War eight months earlier. During the first four months of 2008, 936,000 tourists arrived in Israel – an increase of 43% from the same period in 2007, and 34% more than the same period in 2006. The current pace of growth is consistent with Tourism Ministry goals to attract 2.8 million tourists to Israel this year. However, Tourism Ministry Director General Sha’ul Tzemach says that this blessing places in bold relief the increasing shortage of available guest rooms in Israel.

The story continues here. If you’re planning to bring a group, you would do best to get hotel reservations more than a year in advance.

Tel Dan Inscription at Israel Museum

If you’re in Israel this summer, you may be disappointed that the Archaeology wing of the Israel Museum is closed for renovation (until 2010 or so). But some students of mine yesterday were going through other sections of the museum and found the Tel Dan Inscription displayed in the Youth wing. The anthropoid sarcophagi are also on display.

The Isaiah Scroll is on display now until the end of August. While two shorter sections of the scroll have been rotated on the permanent display over the years, the two longest sections have not been displayed since 1967. Visitors can now see Isaiah 1-28 and 44-66.

Update (5/21): The above has been corrected to reflect that the inscription is in the Youth wing.

Tagged Museums, New Exhibits

Another Jerusalem Quarry Discovered

Like the quarry found last year, this one is north of the Old City. From the Jerusalem Post:

For the second time in the past year, archeologists have uncovered a Second Temple Period quarry whose stones were used to build the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday. The latest archeological discovery was made in the city’s Sanhedria neighborhood, located about two kilometers from the Old City of Jerusalem. The quarry was uncovered during a routine "salvage excavation" carried out by the state-run archeological body over the last several months ahead of the construction of a private house in the religious neighborhood. The quarry is believed to be one of those used to build the Jerusalem holy site because the size of the stones match those at the Western Wall. "Most of the stones that were found at the site are similar in size to the smallest stones that are currently visible in the Western Wall, and therefore we assume that the stones from this quarry were used to build these structures," said Dr. Gerald Finkielsztejn, director of the excavation. The stones were dated by pottery found at the site, he added. "This is a rather regular quarry except that there are really big stones," Finkielsztejn said. The largest of the stones found at the quarry measures 0.69 x 0.94 x 1.65 m, while some of the stones were apparently ready for extraction but were left in place. The quarry was probably abandoned at the time of the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66-70 CE, he said.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount