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Pithom also called Per-Atum or Heroöpolis or Heroonopolis (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: or , Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
 xvi. 759, 768, xvii. 803, 804; Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
, Exp. Alex. iii. 5, vii. 20; Joseph.
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
 Ant. Jud. ii. 7. § 5; Plin.
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 v. 9. § 11, vi. 32. § 33; Mela
Mela

Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a Fair. It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gathering and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sports....
, iii. 8; Steph. B.
Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus was the author of an important Gazetteer entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome compiled by one Hermolaus....
 s. v.; Ptol.
Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
 ii. 1. § 6, iv. 15. § 54), is an ancient city of Egypt known from both biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 and Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 sources.

Biblical Pithom
Pithom is one of the cities which, according to Exodus
Exodus

Exodus is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai....
 , was built for the Pharaoh
Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
 of the oppression by the forced labor of the Israelite
Israelite

According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
s.






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Pithom also called Per-Atum or Heroöpolis or Heroonopolis (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: or , Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
 xvi. 759, 768, xvii. 803, 804; Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
, Exp. Alex. iii. 5, vii. 20; Joseph.
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
 Ant. Jud. ii. 7. § 5; Plin.
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 v. 9. § 11, vi. 32. § 33; Mela
Mela

Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a Fair. It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gathering and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sports....
, iii. 8; Steph. B.
Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus was the author of an important Gazetteer entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome compiled by one Hermolaus....
 s. v.; Ptol.
Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
 ii. 1. § 6, iv. 15. § 54), is an ancient city of Egypt known from both biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 and Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 sources.

The name


The Egyptian name, "Pithom" (Pi-Tum or Pa-Tum), means "house of Tum" [or "Atum,"], i.e., the sun-god
Solar deity

A Solar Deity , is a deity who represents the sun, or an aspect of it. People have worshiped these for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the "missing sun" found in many cultures ....
 of Heliopolis; and the Greek word "Hero" is probably a translation of "Atum."

Biblical Pithom


Pithom is one of the cities which, according to Exodus
Exodus

Exodus is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai....
 , was built for the Pharaoh
Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
 of the oppression by the forced labor of the Israelite
Israelite

According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
s. The other city was Ramses
Avaris

Avaris , was located near modern Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward and the delta sedimented up and moved with the river, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major administrative capital of the Hyksos "Phoenician kings" and other traders....
; and the Septuagint
Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
 adds a third, "On, which is Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis , meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome . Its name also refers to an unrelated Heliopolis of Cairo, also known as ??? ???????, Masr al-gidedah ....
." The meaning of the term , rendered in the Authorized Version "treasure cities" and in the Revised Version "store cities," is not definitely known. The Septuagint renders "strong [or "fortified"] cities." The same term is used of certain cities of King Solomon in I Kings
Books of Kings

The Books of Kings are a part of Judaism's Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. They were originally written in Hebrew language and were later included by Christianity as part of the Old Testament....
 9:19 (comp. also II Chronicles
Books of Chronicles

LocationIn the masoretic text, Chronicles is part of the third part of the Tanakh, namely Ketuvim . In most printed versions it is the last book in Ketuvim ....
 16:4).

Graeco-Roman Heroöpolis


Heroöpolis was a large city east of the Nile Delta
Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the River delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas?from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline?and is a rich agricultural region....
, situated near the mouth of the Royal Canal which connected the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 with the Red Sea
Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
. Although not immediately upon the coast, but nearly due north of the Bitter Lakes, Heroöpolis was of sufficient importance, as a trading station, to confer its name upon the arm of the Red Sea (Ptol. v. 17. § 1, Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: Heroopoliticus Sinus) which runs up the Egyptian mainland as far as Arsinoë
Arsinoe (Gulf of Suez)

Arsinoe or Arsinoites or Cleopatris or Cleopatra, was an ancient city at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Suez , in the Red Sea....
 (near modern Suez
Suez

Suez is a seaport town in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as As Suways Governorate....
) ; the modern Gulf of Suez
Gulf of Suez

The northern end of the Red Sea is River_bifurcation by the Sinai Peninsula, creating the Gulf of Suez in the west and the Gulf of Aqaba to the east....
. (Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 8.) It was the capital of the Heroopolite nome (the 8th nome
Nome (Egypt)

A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian language term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic Egypt period....
 of Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the Fertile Crescent Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
) later renamed the Arsinoite nome. (Orelli, Inscr. Lat. no. 516.)

Location


The location of Pithom has been the subject of much conjecture and debate. In the spring of 1883 Édouard Naville
Édouard Naville

Captaine Henri ?douard Naville was a Switzerland egyptologist. He studied in London, Paris and Berlin .He first journeyed to Egypt in 1865, and published the myths of Horus from the temple at Edfu in 1870....
 believed he had identified it as the archaeological site Tell-el-Maskhuta. The site of Pithom, as identified by Naville, is to the east of Wadi Tumilat, south-west of Ismaïlia
Ismaïlia

Isma?lia is the Capital of Egypt's Al Isma'iliyah Governorate. It has a population of approximately 750,000. It is located on the west bank of the Suez Canal, approximately half way between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south....
. Here was formerly a group of granite statues representing Ramesses II
Ramesses II

Ramesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as Ancient Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh....
, two inscriptions naming Pr-Itm, storehouses and bricks made without straw. The excavations carried on by Naville for the Egypt Exploration Fund
Egypt Exploration Society

The Egypt Exploration Society is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology.The Egypt Exploration Fund , as it was originally known, was formed in 1882, largely at the instigation of passionate amateur Egyptologists such as Amelia Edwards and concerned professionals such as Reginald Stuart...
 uncovered a city wall, a ruined temple, and the remains of a series of brick buildings with very thick walls and consisting of rectangular chambers of various sizes, opening only at the top and without any entrances to one another. Naville identified it as being in the region of Tjeku, the capital of the 8th Lower Egypt nome
Nome

Nome may refer to:A subnational division:* Nome , in ancient Egypt* Prefectures of Greece, in GreecePlace names:* Nome, Norway* Nome, Alaska, USA...
. Excavations carried out over five seasons between 1978 and 1985 have shown that Tell el-Maskhuta dates only to the end of the 7th century, and may have been built by Pharaoh Necho II
Necho II

Necho II was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt , and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Ra Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah....
, possibly as part of the major canal building project from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez. Although it was known as Pithom until Roman times, it was clearly not the Pithom of the Bible.

This identification was challenged by Sir Allen Gardiner, who identified Pithom with Tell er-Rebata, an identification which was later accepted by William F. Albright
William F. Albright

William Foxwell Albright was an United States archaeology, Bible, linguistics and expert on ceramics . From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement....
. More recently the Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen
Kenneth Kitchen

Kenneth Anderson Kitchen is Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool, England....
 endorsed the identification of Pithom with Tell er-Rebata. John Van Seters
John Van Seters

John Van Seters is a notable scholar on the Ancient Near East.HisAbraham in History and Tradition was one of the seminal publications in its field, arguing that no convincing evidence existed to support the historical existence of Abraham and the other Biblical Patriarchs or the historical reliability of the book of Genesis....
 points out that the archeological excavations mentioned above show Tell er-Rebata to have been unoccupied during the same period when we find monuments relating to a town called Pithom.

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