Posted on 01/04/2019 6:26:41 AM PST by BenLurkin
A 2,300-year-old fortress that protected an ancient port called "Berenike" has been discovered in Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea...
Constructed at a time when Egypt was ruled by the Ptolemies, a dynasty of pharaohs descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals, the fortifications are sizable.
"A double line of walls protected the western part of the fortress, while a single line sufficed farther to the east and north. Square towers were built at the corners and in strategic places where sections of the walls connected," wrote archaeologists Marek Woźniakand Joanna Rądkowska in an article recently published online in the journal Antiquity.
The biggest and the most fortified part of the Berenike fortress is a complex that is about 525 feet (160 meters) long and 262 feet (80 m) wide and consists "of three large courtyards and several associated structures, forming an enclosed fortified complex of workshops and stores," wrote Woźniak and Rądkowska, who is at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The most impressive aspect of the fortress is its architecture, said Woźniak, who told Live Science that its "well-made monumental architecture covered and protected by [the] sands is amazing."
Within the fortress gatehouse, archaeologists found a rock-cut well and a series of drains and pools that collected, stored and distributed both groundwater and rainwater. "The two largest pools may have had a total capacity of over 17,000 litres," Woźniak and Rądkowska wrote. The fact that rainwater was drained and collected suggests that Berenike had "a more humid climate than today," they noted.
On the south side of the north defensive wall, in an ancient trash dump, the archaeologists discovered terra-cotta figurines, coins and a piece of an elephant skull.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
PING
Chalk this up to another wall that worked.
Yeah, but it seems that climate change got them in the end! If only they had learned how to control camel flatulence.
Wait a minute....are you telling me that humans knew walls were important over 2,000 years ago ? And how old is the US Congress ? That’s what I thought.
...sent elephants to war!
Thanks Tennessee Nana.
It was founded in 275 BC by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), who named it after his mother, Berenice I of Egypt. [wkikpedia]
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