of brick, but there were other and
larger ones built of limestone. A black granite altar of the reign of
Ahmenemhait II. was discovered, and thrones of royal statues of the
twelfth dynasty. Here were also found a statue of Harpocrates, a portion
of a statue of Phtah, with an inscription of Ramses II., a sphinx and
tombs of the twentieth century B.C. containing many small relics of
antiquity.

Professor Petrie went on from here to the site of Tell Defenneh, the
Tahpanhes of the Bible, called Taphne in the version of the Septuagint.
This proved to be the remains of the earliest Greek settlement in
Egypt, and contains no remains from a later period than the twenty-sixth
dynasty. It was here that Psammeticus I. established a colony of the
Carian and Ionian mercenaries, by whose aid this monarch had won
the throne; and this Greek city had been built as one out of three
fortresses to prevent the incursions of the Arabians and Syrians. The
city of Tahpanhes or Taphne is referred to in the book of Jeremiah.

There were found on this site the remains of a vast pile of brick
buildings, which could be seen in outline from a great distance across
the plains. The Arabs called this "El Kasr el Bin el Yahudi," that is,
"The Castle of the Jew's Daughter." This was found to have been a fort,
and it contained a stele with a record of the garrison which had been
stationed there; pieces of ancient armour and arms were also found in
the neighbourhood. There was likewise a royal hunting-box on this site,
and all the principal parts of the settlement were found to have been
surrounded by a wall fifty feet thick, which enclosed an area of three
thousand feet in length and one thousand in breadth. The gate on the
north opened towards the Pelusiac canal, and the south looked out upon
the ancient military road which led up from Egypt to Syria. Pottery,
bronze-work, some exquisitely wrought scale armour, very light but
overlapping six times, were unearthed within this enclosure. There were
also Greek vases and other Greek remains, dating in the earlier part
of the reign of Ahmosis, who had subsequently sent the Greeks away, and
prevented them from trading in Egypt. Since this Greek colony came to an
end in the year 570 B.C., and as the locality was no longer frequented
by Greek soldiers or merchants, it is possible to set an exact term to
the period of Greek art which these antiquities represent. The Greek
pottery here is so unlike that of Naucra