Egypt is buzzing with excitement because of the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, and, caught up in the Suez Canal fever, the Ministry of Antiquities has organised its own events to mark the celebrations. Three archaeological exhibitions and photographic galleries in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the museums in Suez and Ismailia are to be inaugurated, as well as the site of the Moses Springs (Ayoun Mousa) in Sinai. An open-air museum in the area around the Suez Canal displaying Egypt's military history since the ancient Egyptians to the modern day is also to be inaugurated. The latter area is called Qantara, Egypt's eastern gateway to Palestine and Syria in ancient times and the starting point of the famous Horus Road. This was “the longest military road in Egypt and the only one to have retained physical evidence of its ancient fortresses and military structures,” Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, coordinator of archaeological sites around the New Suez Canal, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Horus Road was a vital commercial and military link between Egypt and Asia and once bore the marching feet of no fewer than 50 armies, he said. Going from west to east, the pharaohs Thutmose III and Ramses II crossed Sinai with their military forces. In the opposite direction came the Assyrian hordes, the Persian army of Cambyses, Alexander the Great and his mercenaries, Antiochus and the Roman legions, and Arab conquerors led by Amr Ibn Al-As. “Digging a New Suez Canal in parallel to the old one and ten kilometres from one of Egypt's most important archaeological sites was certainly good news for archaeology,” Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told the Weekly. It served as an ideal opportunity to spruce up the planned development of the archaeological sites within the vicinity of the Suez Canal, especially at Qantara, he said. Collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) began in February 2013 when the New Suez Canal plan was in its initial stages, he said. The ministry had provided the SCA with maps identifying the location of archaeological sites, in order to prevent encroachment or destruction when the new waterway was being built. It was for this reason that the digging work was located ten kilometres south of Qantara in an area with no known monuments or archaeological sites. No work had taken place at Qantara west, the minister said. “The chequered history of Qantara is a reminder of the battles that have taken place from Pharaonic times to the early 1970s,” Eldamaty said. He added that the development of these sites was part of ministry efforts to protect and preserve the country's monuments by developing and opening new archaeological sites. The original plan was to open seven archaeological sites in Qantara, three in the east and four in the west, while other sites would follow one by one in order to be opened to the public by the time the New Suez Canal was completed. The three sites in East Qantara are Tel Abu Seifi, Pelusium and the Habwa Fortress. Those to the West are Tel Al-Dafna, Tel Al-Maskhouta, Tel Al-Seyeidi and Ain Sukhna. A site-management component was included in the development project in order to provide a route for visitors to enjoy the remains, together with information panels and a high-tech security and lighting system. A visitor centre, bookstore, souvenir shop and cafeteria are to be built. Two buildings displaying a Panorama of Ancient Egypt Fortresses similar to the October War Panorama in Nasr City in Cairo are also planned. The time has been too short to complete all the plans by the time of the new canal's opening, but the ministry has organised various events to celebrate the opening of the canal and to highlight the area's history and soaring monuments. The Ministry of Antiquities celebration is to start a week before the official inauguration of the New Suez Canal with the opening of three temporary exhibitions. Each exhibition will last for 30 days. The Egyptian Museum: Entitled “Discoveries at the Suez Canal's Eastern Gate,” the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square is hosting the first of the exhibitions. It highlights the history of the area around the Suez Canal and its military importance from the ancient era to modern times. It puts on display artefacts unearthed at ten archaeological sites on the eastern and western banks of the Suez Canal, including Pelusium, Tel Habuwa, Tel Abu Seifi, Tel Kedwa, Tel Al-Burg, Tel Al-Farama, Tel Al-Heir and the Tharo Fortress. Photographs showing excavations carried out by Egyptian and foreign archaeological missions at these sites are also on display. Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly that the exhibition displayed the most important discoveries found by foreign and Egyptian excavation missions in the sites surrounding the Suez Canal, including a limestone painted relief depicting the different titles of the pharaoh Ramses II, a stone block depicting Tuthmosis II before the god Montu and a stelae from the reign of Ramses I showing the god Set. A collection of engraved lintels is also on display, as well as photographs showing the New Kingdom military fortresses uncovered in situ, royal palaces from the reigns of Tuthmosis III and Ramses II, and the remains of a 26th Dynasty temple. A storage cellar and industrial zone were also uncovered in Tel Dafna on the Suez Canal's west bank and a Roman structure in Pelusium. Abdel-Maqsoud said that for the first time since its discovery a relief of the pharaoh Ibres discovered at Tel Dafna in Ismailia was to be exhibited. The relief dates to the 26th Dynasty and is carved in sandstone. It shows one of the military expeditions launched by Ibres across Egypt's borders through Sinai and along the Horus Military Road. It was discovered by the armed forces during the 2011 Revolution. The Suez Museum: On August 3 the Suez National Museum is to open an exhibition entitled “The Suez Canal, Plunging into History.” The exhibition puts on show a collection of artefacts unearthed in the Al-Qalzam area. Head of the Museums Section at the ministry of culture Elham Salah told the Weekly that the exhibition highlighted the idea of digging a canal to link the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through the Nile or one of its branches in antiquity until the digging of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the new one in 2015. A collection of photographs and documents relating the story of the creation of the ancient Sesostris Canal, the first canal linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea via the river Nile during the reign of the 12th dynasty pharaoh Senusret III, is also on display, along with images of the Nechao II and Darius Canals. Photographs of the Ptolemaic Canal are also on display, along with pictures of the one dug during the Islamic Period called the Amir al-Mo'menin Canal. Salah said that among the objects were some that were unearthed in 1930 and 1932 during excavation work carried out at in the Tel Al-Qalzam area when it was used to protect the Suez Canal entrance. The items include a collection of rare engravings depicting the religious beliefs of the Al-Qalzam community during the Ptolemaic era, as well as a collection of jewellery, home furniture and vessels. Different types of Ptolemaic lamps are also on display. The Suez National Museum is a two-storey building standing on the banks of the Suez Canal and stretching over a 5,950-square-metre site. It presents the story of the city of Suez from prehistoric to modern times through a display of 1,500 artefacts. It also highlights the struggle of city residents to liberate Sinai from Israeli occupation until the victory in October 1973. The museum was officially inaugurated in 2012, and its collection has been carefully selected from museums and archaeological storehouses across Egypt, with the majority of the exhibits deriving from excavations at archaeological sites within the Suez area. The museum has a section dedicated to the Suez Canal in which documents and paintings of the khedive Said, who issued the decree to dig the canal, and of the khedive Ismail, who inaugurated it once it was completed, can be seen. The collection also includes a medallion with the face of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer who oversaw the work, on one side and the royal vehicle used during the canal's inauguration on the other, as well as a number of other gold and bronze medallions and a set of decorations and awards distributed at the opening. The Ismailia Museum: The first regional museum to be created in Egypt, the Ismailia Museum is displaying artefacts discovered during the construction of the first Suez Canal from 1859 to 1869. The museum is to be opened to the public after three months of restoration in order to show artefacts uncovered during archaeological excavations carried out within the framework of the digging of the Suez Canal. Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly that the Suez Canal Company, responsible for building the original canal, had arranged for an international archaeological mission to excavate the area before the digging. The mission carried out archaeological surveys along the planned waterway from Suez to Port Said, as well as on the western and eastern edges of the canal route. Archaeological fragments, pots, stelae and reliefs were discovered, and the Company built a museum in Ismailia, now the Ismailia Museum, to display them. “Due to such discoveries, the planned path of the Suez Canal was changed to the one we see today,” Abdel-Maqsoud explained, adding that the original waterway was to have run from Qantara West to the Al-Bardawil Lake, but this was changed to run from Qantara West to Port Said. “This eventually led to the creation of Port Fouad,” Abdel-Maqsoud said. Excavations were carried out in the area until the Israeli occupation in 1967. Israeli archaeologists excavated Sinai between 1967 and 1980 and unearthed several objects, which were returned to Egypt under the 1977 Peace Treaty. In 1983, when Egypt's military left Qantara East, the site was turned over to the SCA. During the 1973 War, soldiers building a military camp stumbled upon ruins dating back to the reign of the pharaoh Seti I, including objects bearing his cartouche. In the mid-1990s, further excavation work was carried out within the Al-Salam Canal. In 2014, Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly that excavation work carried out at Qantara East had uncovered an ancient logistics area, including a collection of administrative buildings, customs buildings, structures used to store grain, stables and a dormitory for soldiers. A cartouche of Ramses II was unearthed engraved with Egypt's ancient name of Kemet. “This was the first time that Egypt's name had been seen on a monument built in Sinai,” Abdel-Maqsoud said. He continued by saying that the idea of building the Ismailia Museum came in the late 18th and early 19th century when French Egyptologist Jean Clédat began an excavation mission in the area around the Suez Canal and in North Sinai. The excavations were carried out under the supervision of French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, at the time director of Egypt's antiquities authority. The mission unearthed a number of large and small artefacts, one reason why French engineer André Guiter established an association called Société artistique de l'Isthme de Suez in 1861 to help preserve artefacts discovered during the digging. In 1885, the objects were put on display in a garden in front of de Lesseps's house in Ismailia, becoming the first open-air museum in the country. In 1900, excavations resumed in the area around the Suez Canal and more artefacts were unearthed. In 1911, Clédat turned his home into a temporary museum for the objects. It was not until 1934 that the Ismailia Museum was finally constructed by French architect Louis-Jean Hulot to house the objects discovered during the digging of the first Suez Canal. The collection of the museum today includes 4,000 objects from the ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman eras. Among them are objects discovered in the Tel Al-Maskhouta area where the ancient city of Pithom and House of Atun once stood. Among the most important artefacts are a 22nd Dynasty red sandstone head of a Libyan official, a head of the goddess Bastet, and an image of a priest wearing a bipartite wig and topped by a large scarab in high relief. It is a rare example of the sculptural school of Lower Egypt during the period. Another highlight of the museum is the nearly intact sphinx at the entrance which bears the name of the pharaoh Ramses II. However, closer examination proves it is of much earlier date and was one of the famous “maned sphinxes” of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III. One of the most impressive items is an unusual votive stelae dating to the Late Period that was discovered in the “cachette” in the great temple of Amun at Karnak in Luxor. Its iconography is reminiscent of statues from the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods. Instead of being in a mummiform shape, the god Osiris, ruler of the underworld, is shown wearing a simple loincloth. On top of his tripartite wig he wears the so-called “atef crown” adorned with ram's horns and ostrich feathers. A well-preserved block statue of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, a priest of Amun at Karnak, was found at the same site. It dates to the early Ptolemaic Period and had been set up at the temple of Karnak. Also noteworthy and not to be missed are the well preserved painted and gilded mummy masks from the Roman imperial period. The museum also has a unique collection of mosaics, but the largest and most important is a Roman floor mosaic dating from the 3rd century CE discovered by Clédat in 1913 in the town of Al-Sheikh Zuweid. This dominates the galleries and portrays tragic episodes relating to ancient Greek mythological figures such as Ariadne, Theseus, Phaedra and Hippolytus, along with more lively and colourful scenes such as the Triumph of Dionysus. In late antiquity, Dionysus, the god of wine, known as Bacchus to the Romans, became a popular divinity throughout the Mediterranean world, promising his followers enjoyment and revelry not only in this world but also in the afterlife. Ayoun Mousa (Moses Springs): The Moses Springs is another tourist destination to be opened within the ministry's celebrations. It is located on the Suez to Sharm El-Sheikh Road behind a Bedouin village of the same name. It includes 12 hot springs, some sweet and some bitter, which form a small fertile oasis with palm trees surrounding the springs. Its water has the ability to heal wounds, especially those of diabetic patients, as well as to strengthen bones and help regulate high blood pressure. The springs date to the Israelite exodus from Egypt, when Moses, on God's command, threw a branch into brackish water, making it drinkable. Abdel-Maqsoud said the area had been developed to make it tourist-friendly. A visitor centre relating the story of the springs has been established, along with a bookstore and fully equipped cafeteria. He added that a book containing details of the discoveries made during the digging of the original Suez Canal and of the new one would be launched as part of the celebrations. The book also contains articles on discoveries made during the digging of the Sesostris Canal, explaining how the ancient Egyptians had dug it to link the Mediterranean to the Red Sea via the Nile. Discoveries carried out by Egyptian archaeological missions over the last 25 years since 1981 have also been published. Egypt's military history: Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly that after the official opening of the New Suez Canal, the Ministry of Antiquities would start a major project to relate Egypt's military history from the ancient Egyptian period until today. This will be achieved by reviving the ancient Horus Military Road, which still retains physical evidence of its ancient fortresses and military structures, he said. This project includes the opening of seven sites that will be refurbished to make them tourist-friendly. Three of the sites are in Qantara East and four in Qantara West, and each will be restored and opened to the public. “This is a new tourist site with very distinguished monuments that relate to Egypt's military history through different time periods,” Abdel-Maqsoud said, adding that the development of the Horus Road as a tourist attraction had now gained momentum. Qantara: During the ancient Egyptian period, Qantara East, the start of the Horus Road, was the scene of many battles, among them those led by the pharaohs Ahmose I in his war of liberation against the Hyksos, Seti I in his military campaigns against rebels in Sinai and Canaan, and Ramses II in his war against the Hittites. In modern times, Qantara East saw battles between the Allies and the Ottomans during World War I, as well as serving as the base for Australian operations in Sinai from 1916 until its final demobilisation in 1920. It was the location of a World War I warehouse and a hospital centre that was also used during World War II. The town was captured by Israel during the 1967 War, but won back after the October War in 1973. In peacetime, the city was an important trading post and one of Egypt's busiest ports during the Graeco-Roman period, second only to Alexandria. Ships from the eastern Mediterranean and caravans from Syria and Palestine came to the area to trade goods such as wine, oil and honey, which were transported to Egypt and the Red Sea by Nile barge and by road. By the mid-1990s, the area was drawing interest as an important archaeological site, particularly after a number of ancient Egyptian monuments and artefacts were discovered during excavations by archaeologists from the US's Trinity University, France's Sorbonne and the then-Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), now the Ministry of Antiquities. These finds came within the framework of the salvage operation of Sinai monuments organised in response to the threat posed to scores of sites by the Al-Salam Canal. Several ancient objects and structures were discovered, among them a mud-brick temple, a number of bronze and limestone coins and scarabs featuring Osiris and Horus, limestone reliefs bearing the names of two royal figures, and two seated statues. Weapons, pottery shards, grain silos, stables, storerooms, a dormitory for soldiers and dwellings were also excavated, along with the remains of military fortresses, citadels, churches, amphitheatres and baths. At Pelusium and neighbouring sites at Tel Al-Makhzan and Kanais which probably formed part of Greater Pelusium, excavation work has been carried out around the ancient port, amphitheatre, Byzantine church and ruins of three more churches dating from the fourth and fifth centuries CE. “The Horus Road was, of course, also the highway along which Christian pilgrims travelled, and there were once churches from Rafah to Pelusium,” Abdel-Maqsoud said. Excavations in the Tel Al-Borg area have revealed two limestone forts, one dating from the reign of the 28th Dynasty pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1475-1425 BCE) and the second from the 19th Dynasty. The latter was probably a Rameside fort as it bears the name of the pharaoh Ramses II, and is dubbed “the Mansion of the Lion.” The remaining part of the first fort was found on the east bank of the Al-Salam Canal. It consists of a moat built on a foundation of between nine and 14 layers of fired red brick, a material used only rarely during the ancient Egyptian New Kingdom. A small stela dedicated to the Asiatic gods Resheph and Astarte was among the items found, and a number of horse and donkey burials were uncovered in the moat. Other items recovered include several jar handles stamped with the cartouches of the pharaohs Smenkhare and Tutankhamun and inscriptions from the reign of Tuthmosis III and a stone block of a deity with the name “Strong Bull” written on it. The walls of the fort are 100 metres high and are embellished with a number of rectangular mud-brick towers. Surrounding it is a two-km-long moat that was once filled with water. At Tel al-Heir, 25 km east of the Suez Canal, the French mission from the Sorbonne found the remains of the Migdol Fort of the pharaoh Seti I. This large fort once had soaring towers and a resthouse for the pharaoh. It is believed to be the second most important military fort on the Horus Road after Tharo West, found in 2003 by an Egyptian team led by Abdel-Maqsoud. In 2004, the fort of Tharo East was discovered. It is 500 metres long, 250 metres wide and featured walls that were 13 metres thick and a 12-metre-wide southern entrance. It was once surrounded by a giant water-filled moat. “This is the largest fortress yet found in the area,” Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly, adding that the structure included 24 massive defence towers, 20 metres by four metres in size. Along with Tharo West, it was part of the eastern defences of the ancient Egyptian military town of Tharo and Egypt's gateway to the Delta. It was also the point where the ancient Egyptian army carried out military campaigns to secure the country's borders. The graves of soldiers and horses have been found. “The bones of humans and horses found in the area attest to the reality of such battles,” Abdel-Maqsoud said. “This discovery is concrete evidence of the events depicted on the reliefs of Seti I engraved on the north wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak,” he added. The reliefs narrate Seti I's campaign to smash rebel forces in the first year of his rule. Abdel-Maqsoud said that the discovery also showed that ancient artists drew accurate topographical maps of the Horus Road that once stretched from Egypt to Palestine. According to the reliefs, 11 forts were built on this section of the road, although excavations have so far unveiled only five. The first was at Qantara East and the last was in Gaza. Although the New Kingdom pharoah Seti I was the founder of the Horus Road, Abdel-Maqsoud said, several parts of a Middle Kingdom fortified barrier named the Al-Amir Wall have also been discovered along the military route. It is still not clear whether this was once part of a wall linking the Middle Kingdom series of fortresses, he added. The existence of forts on the Horus Road has long been part of the historical record, first revealed in reliefs at Karnak. But their ruins were only excavated from 1859 onwards, when initial excavations started to dig the Suez Canal to link the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea.
