Tell el-Maskhuta

Some 14mi/22km west of Ismailia, in the Wadi Tumilat, is the Tell el-Maskhuta, the site of the Egyptian stronghold of Tiyeku, which was excavated by E. Naville in 1883. This is believed by many authorities to be the Biblical Pithom (Egyptian Per-Atum, "House of Atum"), one of the two cities which the Israelites were compelled to build for their Egyptian taskmasters (Exodus 1: 11), which became the capital of the eighth nome of Lower Egypt. The store rooms found near the temple, deep rectangular chambers without doors into which the grain was poured from above, are thought to date from the time of Ramesses II and may possibly be the "treasure cities" (storehouses) mentioned in the Bible. Alternatively it has been suggested that these structures were part of a fort.