An Egyptian Italian excavation mission discovered the remains of two fortresses that date back to the ancient Egyptian Late Period in Tell el- Maskhuta area located in Wadi al-Tamilat, 15 kilometres west of the city of Ismailia, the Ministry of Antiquities announced.
The Italian mission is affiliated with the National Research Council of Italy’s Institute of Ancient Mediterranean Studies (CNR).
Head of the Italian mission Giuseppina Vittozzi explained, in a press release, that the eastern fort is 12 metres wide and 4 metres deep. The mission discovered that it was built on the ruins of the Hyksos era and can be traced to the 26th Dynasty.
For his part, Mohammed Abdel-Maksoud, a member of the mission, revealed that the fortresses were most likely military ones, explaining that their walls are built of mud bricks and supported by defensive towers, “as this was the usual architectural plan for military forts” at that time.
The discovery is important because it adds to the history of military architecture in Egypt, particularly as one of the fortresses leads to the eastern entrance of Egypt, and as Tell el-Maskhuta represents an extraordinary example of ancient Egyptian fortresses east of the Nile, he added.
He also stated that the mission will prepare a project to revive the history of the area and its monuments and to renovate the walls of the discovered fort, which protect the path to the Nile Delta, as well as to complete the excavation work, which is expected to lead to more discoveries at the site.
