Massive Egyptian fort discovered

A handout picture released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities yesterday, shows a general view of excavation trenches mapping out the ancient wall foundations of the newly discovered Pharaonic fortress of Tharo on the edge of Egypt’s Sinai desert. (AFP)

Egypt announced on Sunday the discovery of the largest-ever military city from the Pharaonic period on the edge of the Sinai desert, part of a series of forts that stretched to the Gaza border.

"The three forts are part of a string of 11 castles that made up the Horus military road that went from Suez all the way to the city of Rafah on the Egyptian-Palestinian border and dates to the 18th and 19th dynasties (1560-1081 BC)," antiquities supreme Zahi Hawas said in a statement.

Teams have been digging in the area for the past decade, but the Egyptian discovery of the massive Fort Tharo and the discovery of two other fortresses by French and American teams confirmed the existence of the Horus fortifications described in ancient texts.

Fort Tharo, the military headquarters for the eastern defence of Egypt, had 13-metre thick mud brick walls running 500 metres by 250 metres and was punctuated by 24 huge towers, said a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The fortress was surrounded by a water-filled moat which could only be crossed by using a removable wooden bridge, with the fort's administrative buildings, temples, storehouses and market places found nearby.

The entire complex, which was connected by a bridge over the crocodile-infested waters of a now silted up branch of the Nile, was charged with defending Pharaoh Ramses II's northern capital city of Per-Ramesse.

Ramses II of the 19th Dynasty spent 16 years of his long reign battling the rival Hittites in the Levant and mounted numerous expeditions across the desert into neighbouring lands.

The other fortresses discovered appear to be outer lines of defence for the Tharo complex.

The American expedition found a 100-metre square fort known as the Lion's Lair seven kilometres east of Tharo in Tel al-Burj, also surrounded by a large moat.

Another 15 kilometres to the east the French expedition found a slightly smaller fortress built by Ramses' father Seti I in Tel Heir.