Tanis, Egypt

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The ruins of Tanis in 2004

Tanis (Τάνις), the Greek name of ancient Djanet (modern صان الحجر Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar), is a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of Egypt ([30°58′N 31°52′E]). It lays on the Tanitic branch of the Nile (now silted up), and it was the supposed site of some of the action in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

History

Tanis is called צֹעַן (Ṣōˁan) Zoan in Numbers 13:22, Isaiah 19:11,13, 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14; and Psalms 78:12,43. According to Numbers 13:22 and Psalms 78:12,43 it was built seven years after Hebron. It was also in the area of Goshen, where Joseph settled his family in Egypt, though long before Tanis was ever built.

Tanis was founded in the late Twentieth dynasty, and became the northern capital of Egypt during the following Twenty-first dynasty. It was the home city of Smendes, founder of the 21st Dynasty. During the Twenty-second dynasty Tanis remained as Egypt's political capital (though there were sometimes rival dynasties located elsewhere in Upper Egypt). It was an important commercial and strategic city until it was threatened with inundation by Lake Manzala in the 6th century CE, when it was finally abandoned. The refugees founded the nearby city of Tennis.

Ruins

There are ruins of a number of temples, including the chief temple dedicated to Amun, and a very important royal necropolis of the Third Intermediate Period (which contains the only known intact royal Pharaonic burials - the tomb of Tutankhamun having been entered in antiquity). Many of the stones use to build the various temples at Tanis came from the old Ramesside town of Qantir (ancient Per-Ramesses), which caused many former generations of Egyptologists to believe that Tanis was, in fact, Per-Ramesses.

The chief deities of Tanis were Amun, his consort, Mut, and their child Khonsu, forming the Tanite triad. This triad was, however, identical to that of Thebes, leading many scholars to speak of Tanis as the "northern Thebes".

References

• Association française d’Action artistique. 1987. Tanis: L’Or des pharaons. [Paris]: Ministère des Affaires Étrangères and Association française d’Action artistique.
• Brissaud, Phillipe. 1996. "Tanis: The Golden Cemetery". In Royal Cities of the Biblical World, edited by Joan Goodnick Westenholz. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum. 110–149.
• Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson. [1996]. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC). 3rd ed. Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited.
• Montet, Jean Pierre Marie. 1947. La nécropole royale de Tanis. Volume 1: Les constructions et le tombeau d’Osorkon II à Tanis. Fouilles de Tanis, ser. ed. Jean Pierre Marie Montet. Paris: [n. p.].
• ———. 1951. La nécropole royale de Tanis. Volume 2: Les constructions et le tombeau de Psousennès à Tanis. Fouilles de Tanis, ser. ed. Jean Pierre Marie Montet. Paris: [n. p.].
• ———. 1960. La nécropole royale de Tanis. Volume 3: Les constructions et le tombeau de Chechanq III à Tanis. Fouilles de Tanis, ser. ed. Jean Pierre Marie Montet. Paris: [n. p.].
• Stierlin, Henri, and Christiane Ziegler. 1987. Tanis: Trésors des Pharaons. [Fribourg]: Seuil.
• Yoyotte, Jean. 1999. "The Treasures of Tanis". In The Treasures of the Egyptian Museum, edited by Francesco Tiradritti. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. 302–333.

External links

• [Tanis (Tour Egypt)]
• [Société Française des Fouilles de Tanis]
• [Archaeology Magazine article on Teasures of Tanis]
• [Tanis: San el-Hagar]