Ancient Avaris Ramessu Ramesse
Biblical Raamses and Modern Tell Daba

Avaris in the northeastern part of the Delta was the capital of the Hyksos Kings of the Second Intermediate Period. Their fortified city was built over a Middle Kingdom town they had captured. They built a Canaanite style temple and had Palestinian style burials there including burials of horses. They also brought with them such elements of Palestinian culture as their superior weapons and their type of pottery although they were to a certain extent [to become] Egyptianized. Avaris was captured by Ahmose I who ended Hyksos rule and founded the Eighteenth Dynasty .....

Excavations have been continuing for over 30 years near the Egyptian village of Tell Daba. Here in the Nile Delta region a large Middle Bronze Age settlement has been uncovered. This is the region of Goshen and the excavation is at the location of the biblical city of Raamses or Pi Ramesse or the city of Ramesses II. Settlement here spans a period from the 12th to the 20th Dynasties of Egypt. The ancient city at its peak covered an area of ten square kilometres making it one of the largest cities of the ancient world. It existed for 800 years before being abandoned when its stones was used to build Tanis.

The city of Pi Ramesse or Raamses is of course famous because it was here that the early Israelites settled as they sojourned in Egypt and here also that they were enslaved. Raamses however was not the original name for the city built by the Israelites but as discussed earlier was a later redaction. The city of Pi Ramesse was indeed built by the 19th Dynasty ruler Ramesses II (the Great) but below it the Austrian team led by Manfred Bietak uncovered a much older city called Avaris which was the actual city built by the Israelites long before any pharaoh Ramesses had ever reigned .....

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