Wadi Tumilat (Old Egyptian Tjeku/Tscheku/Tju/Tschu) is the 50-kilometre-long (31 mi) dry valley (Wadi) to the east of the Nile Delta. It starts near the modern town of Zagazig and the ancient town of Bubastis and goes east to the area of modern Ismaïlia. In prehistory, it was a distributary of the Nile.
In ancient times, this was a significant communication artery for caravan trade between Egypt and points to the east. The Canal of the Pharaohs was built there. A little water still flows along the Wadi.
The Arabic name “Wadi Tumilat” is believed to reflect the existence in the area, in ancient times, of an important temple of the god Atum (Old Egyptian pr-itm, ‘House of Atum’, changed over time into ‘Tumilat’, as well as into ‘Pithom’).
Location of Wadi Tumilat
Today, the Wadi Tumilat is a narrow, intensively cultivated valley some 52 km long but only 2-6 km wide, leading eastward from Abassa to Ismailia and the shores of Lake Timsah. It is one of the two main overland routes leading from the Nile Delta to the Sinai and western Asia and is heavily traversed today.
Archaeology
Wadi Tumilat has the ruins of several ancient settlements. The earliest site excavated is that of Kafr Hassan Dawood, which dates from the Predynastic Period to the Early Dynastic Period. Late in the New Kingdom of Egypt, a well-fortified site was at Tell el-Retabah. But then, in the Saite Dynasty period, the central settlement and fort were moved east to Tell el-Maskhuta, only 12 km (7.5 mi) to the east.
Necho II (610–595 BC) initiated—but may have never completed—the ambitious project of cutting a navigable canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Red Sea. Necho’s Canal was the earliest precursor of the Suez Canal, and it went through Wadi Tumilat. It was in connection with a new activity that Necho founded a new city of Per-Temu Tjeku, which translates as ‘The House of Atum of Tjeku’ at Tell el-Maskhuta.
Around 1820, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, brought 500 Syrians to the Wadi and equipped them with animals and labour to construct 1,000 sakias to cultivate mulberry trees for sericulture. The irrigation system was repaired by cleaning and deepening the existing canals. Delivery was provided by forcing peasants to work.
Tell Shaqafiya in the Wadi is associated with the Canal and its operation. The Tell el Gebel site is mainly from the Roman period. In 1930, a German Institute in Cairo team surveyed Wadi Tumilat. Later, some Hyksos tombs were discovered in the Tell es-Sahaba area.
Wadi Tumilat Project
Modern excavations at Tell el-Maskhuta were carried out by the University of Toronto “Wadi Tumilat Project” under the direction of John S. Holladay Jr. They worked over five seasons between 1978 and 1985.
As many as 35 sites have been identified in the Wadi. The three significant tells in the Wadi are Tell el-Maskhuta, Tell er-Retabah, and Tell Shaqafiya.
Tell er-Retabah has been investigated by the archaeologist Hans Goedicke of Johns Hopkins University.
Biblical references
There are several biblical references to the area of Wadi Tumilat. For example, the ancient Pithom is believed to be here.
The western end of the Wadi Tumilat is identified as part of the Land of Goshen.
Wadi Tumilat—an arable strip of land serving as the ancient transit route between Egypt and Canaan across the Sinai Peninsula—is also seen by scholars as the biblical “Way of Shur”.
Biblical scholar Edouard Naville identified the area of Wadi Tumilat as Sukkot (Tjeku), the 8th Lower Egypt nome. This location is also mentioned in the Bible.
