Pithom of Exodus i. 11

The Pithom of ancient Egypt. Ruins of this town have been identified in excavations at the modern Tel el Maskhutah, by Edouard Naville. The name has been found on a statue and on the great tablet of Ptolemy Philadelphus discovered at this spot. The name is also written *Pa-Tum*, or *Ha-neter Tum*, and was known through the lists of nomes to be the capital of the eighth nome of Lower Egypt. It is situated about ten miles west of the southern end of Lake Timsah. In all probability Pithom was built by Ramses II., no monuments more ancient than those which bear his mark having been unearthed. There is no royal stamp on the bricks. Remains of the XXIInd Dynasty—Shashanq I. and Osorkon II.—have been found. Nectanebo I. also built at Pithom. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus it was the starting-point of commercial expeditions to the Red Sea. Various papyri a ociate Pithom with a region called Thuku, or Thuket; which has been identified with the Hebrew Succoth (Exodus xiii. 20.) Succoth was the district in which the Israeli tes encamped, and in which the town Pithom was built. Under the Greek Dynasty, Pithom became Heröpolis, a name abridged into Ero by the Romans. The portions of the walls and chambers that have been excavated are of a very substantial character, indicating a good epoch. Such is the construction of these chambers, that M. Naville says: "I believe them to have been built for no other purpose than that of storehouses, or granaries, into which the Pharaohs gathered the provisions nece ary for armies about to cro the desert, or even for caravans and travellers which were on the road to Syria. It is also very likely that the Ptolemies used them as warehouses in the trade with Africa, which took place through the He roo pol it an Gulf." ("The Store-City of Pithom," by Edouard Naville.) See statue of Ankh-renp-nefer in British Museum Southern Egyptian Gallery, No. 1007.