The remains of ancient Tanis (Egyptian Djanet, Coptic San, the Zoan of the Old Testament), capital of the Tanite kings of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties and later chief town of the 14th nome of Lower Egypt, lie in the northeast of the Delta at the modest village of San el-Hagar, still partly buried under a ridge of hills 2mi/3.5km long and 1mi/1.5km wide which rises to a height of 115ft/35m above the flat and desolate plain bordering Lake Manzala. The excavated remains are the most important and most discussed in the Delta, full of interest for the archeologically inclined.
The rubble mound of San el-Hagar was first investigated in 1825. The first systematic excavations were carried out by Mariette between 1860 and 1880, and Flinders Petrie worked on the site in 1883-84. Excavation was resumed between 1929 and 1951 under the direction of P. Montet, yielding new finds of the greatest interest.
The town of Tanis, situated on the right bank of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, on the edge of the marshes bordering Lake Manzala (which then reached farther south), was probably founded during the sixth Dynasty. After the fall of the Ramessids and their capital Pi-Ramesse Tanis became the residence of the Kings of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties. The excavations yielded material from almost every period of Egyptian history, but objects from the Ramessid capital founded by Ramesses II were of particularly frequent occurrence, leading Montet to the conclusion that San el-Hagar was actually the site of Ramesses's town. It is now established that after becoming capital Tanis was considerably enlarged and embellished, using stones and architectural elements from other sites, particularly the nearby royal residences of Pi-Ramesse and Avaris. The site, which covers some 75 acres, has not yet by any means been fully explored, so that further discoveries are still to be expected.
Some 9mi/15km southwest of Tell Nabasha, at the villages of El-Khatana and Kantir, are irregularities in the surface of the otherwise level plain which are thought to mark the sites of the Hyksos capital of Avaris and the Ramessid residence of Pi-Ramesse. This remains to be established by excavation.
To the southwest, outside the outer enclosure wall, was a Temple of Anat, a Syrian goddess who was identified with the Egyptian goddess Mut, with her companion, the youthful Khons.
8mi/13km southeast of Tanis is Tell Nabasha (also known as Tell Faraun and Tell Bedawi), a rubble mound which contains the remains of the ancient Egyptian Yemet. The site was excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1886, revealing the remains of a temple apparently built by Ramesses II and other Ramessids, using stone from earlier buildings, and a temple dedicated by Amasis to the local goddess Buto. In the cemetery were found Egyptian tombs of the 19th Dynasty and the tombs of Cypriot mercenaries who were stationed here in the reign of Amasis. Southeast of the temple precinct are the scanty remains of a town of the Graeco Roman period.
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