The Egyptian archaeological mission operating in the Tel al-Kidwa area in North Sinai, headed by Ramadan Helmy, director of the North Sinai Antiquities Department and head of the mission, succeeded in unearthing a group of missed water wells next to Horus Road, which date back to Pharaonic times, as part of the Sinai Development Project 2021-2022.
Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, confirmed that this is the first time that water wells have been discovered in the region since the Pharaonic eras.
He indicated that scientific evidence affirms their existence as they were engraved during the era of King Seti I on the walls of the Karnak temple.
He noted that the number of the wells is five, located outside the walls of the castle of Tel al-Kidwa, in an area characterized by yellow sand. Evidence also proves that it was deliberately destroyed and filled with only one well, so as not to be used by intruders during the Persian invasion period.
Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the only surviving well was built in an unconventional way, as it was dug in yellow sand, and pottery rings were laid on top of each other inside it. The diameter of each of the wells is approximately one meter, and it has three side openings that help in descending and ascending from the well.
The Egyptian mission excavated and descended a distance of just over three meters, and it found 13 pottery rings, and many pottery vessels dating back to the 26th Dynasty, the Saite era.
As for the results of the mission’s excavations inside the fortress, Dr. Nadia Khader, head of the Central Department of Antiquities of Lower Egypt, said that they resulted in the discovery of a storeroom, which is about 12 meters long and 4 meters wide, and in the middle of it there are a number of pottery pots that were placed on top of each other that were used as water drains.
The mission also found the remains of kilns, from the middle of the Saite era, likely to be a workshop for smelting copper ore where circular shapes of copper alloy parts were found, as well as parts of pottery bellows that were used in the smelting processes.
For his part, Dr. Hisham Hussein, Director General of Sinai Antiquities, stressed that Tel Al-Kidwa is one of the most important sites of Egyptian military architecture during the twenty-sixth dynasty ( Saite era) in North Sinai.
It is known that the Horus Military Road is one of the oldest roads in the Sinai, and it connected Egypt and Palestine with a length of 220 km. It was known in the Egyptian Pharaonic texts since the era of the Old Kingdom as the “Road of Horus.” The inscription of King Seti I at Karnak Temple is the main source that indicates the existence of a series of Military castles and water wells along the road, where the inscription of King Seti I depicted a water well in front of each fortress of the Horus Road.
The ancient Egyptians, during the era of the New Kingdom, gave specific names to each castle and water well from the wells of the ancient Horus War Road.
Translated by Ahmed Moamar
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