‘Horus Road’ discovery

The archaeological site of Tell Abu Seifi in Qantara East (Ismailia Governorate) – a key site on the military ‘Horus Road’ – could be the location of the lost city of ‘Mesn’ mentioned in New Kingdom sources. An Egyptian mission has found a massive broken limestone lintel inscribed with the cartouches of Ramesses II, and an inscription stating that restoration work was carried out on the statue of the deity ‘Horus, Lord of Mesn’. The team also uncovered a massive mud-brick wall with gates and internal chambers, which served as the outer enclosure wall of a temple precinct. Remains of the temple have been found, too, including a series of storage rooms on the northern side and larger service rooms on the southern side extending to the ‘Holy of Holies’. The sanctuary itself was demolished when the area was quarried for stone in the Roman Period. Other finds include a Twenty-sixth Dynasty schist statue of an army scribe and other Late Period fragments, and two roads from the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods leading to the temple. These discoveries reflect the site’s military and religious importance as a defensive post on the eastern border throughout the pharaonic period and beyond.