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Shur / Great Wall of Egypt / Wall of the Prince

Shur [meaning "wall"] is the name given to a place (centered 30°14´, 33°14´) southwest of Palestine on the eastern border or within the border of Egypt; the Israelites passed through the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea, also called the 'wilderness of Etham'. The name was probably given to it from the wall (or shur) which the Egyptians built to defend their frontier on the north-east from the desert tribes. This wall or line of fortifications is said to have extended from Pelusium to Heliopolis. The word may refer to the mountain wall of the Tih plateau as visible from the shore plains of the desert East of the Gulf of Suez.

Shur is first mentioned in the narrative of Haggar's flight from Sarah. In Genesis 16:7 Hagar at Kadesh (`Ain Qadis) (see 16:14) is said to have been "in the way to Shur." Abraham afterward "dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar." (Genesis 20:1) The position of Shur is defined (Gen 25:18) as being "opposite Egypt on the way to Assyria." After crossing the Red Sea (Ex 15:4) the Hebrews entered the wilderness of Shur (Exodus 15:22,23), which extended southward a distance of three days' journey. It was also called the wilderness of Etham. (Numbers 33:8) It is again noticed (1 Sam 15:7) as being opposite Egypt, and (1 Sam 27:8) as near Egypt.

The Biblical usage of the name allows infering the existence of a city after which the region was named. The expression, " the way to Shur," applies better to a city than to a "wall," and "between Kadesh and Shur" puts these two names in the same category. The use of the name as the limit of territory is equally applicable to region or city. Shur may have been a territory town east of the ancient head of the Red Sea; and from its being spoken of as a limit, it was probably the last Arabian town before entering Egypt. There is thus no doubt of its situation, on the East of the Red Sea, and of the Bitter Lakes. Brugsch proposed to regard Shur ("the wall") as equivalent to the Egyptian anbu ("wall"), the name of a fortification of some kind apparently near Kantarah], probably barring the entrance to Egypt on the road from Pelusium to Zoan.

This expression, Shur ("wall"), has been interpreted in two ways. Palmer says (Desert of the Exodus, I. 38, 39) that when standing at the wells of Moses and looking at the hills "we at once appreciate the fact that these long, walllike escarpments are the chief, if not the only prominent characteristics of this portion of the wilderness, and we need not wonder that the Israelites should have named this memorable spot, after its most salient feature, the wilderness of Shur, or the wall." This is the earlier view.

But a prime objection to this identification is, that Jebel er-Rahah does not stand " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria." It is too far south for that. A "wall," better meeting the requirements of the text than this mountain range. Shur is referred to in the text as " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria;" and again as " over against Egypt;" and as "even unto the land of Egypt." "Before Egypt," here, clearly means "in the face of" Egypt, east of Egypt." As thou goest to Assyria " means one of two things : either, in the direction of Assyria; that is, northeastward; or, more probably, on the highway to Assyria; that is, by way of Damascus. The only feasible highway from Egypt to Assyria, was and is, northward through Syria, and thence southeasterly through Mesopotamia; never across the trackless Arabian desert. "Shur " means "a wall;" and from its meaning, as well as from the various references to it in the text, it would seem clear that Shur was a wall, or barrier, of some kind, across the great northeastern highways out of Egypt, and this at a point on or near the eastern boundary line of Egypt.

A later one is represented in its most completely elaborated form by Trumbull (Kadesh-Barnea, p. 46). "A 'wall' better meeting the requirements of the text than this mountain range is to be looked for ; nor will a search for it be in vain. Inasmuch as there was a great defensive Wall built across the eastern frontier of Egypt, 'as thou goest toward Assyria;' a Wall that was hardly less prominent in the history of Egypt than has been the Great Wall of China in the history of the 'Middle Kingdom,' it would seem the most natural thing in the world to suppose that the Biblical mention of the Wall 'that is before Egypt' had reference to — the Wall that was before Egypt."

The Wadi Tumilat is a low-lying, shallow valley bounded on either side by the hot, rocky desert. In ancient times it was dry except when its narrow bed was occasionally flooded by the inundations of the Nile. On the west it opened into the Nile Delta. At an early period the Egyptians had established at the eastern part of the Wadi Tumilat a fortress (known as the "Wall of the Prince"), for it was the most vulnerable spot on all the Egyptian frontier. Amidst these more favoring conditions on the borders of the Nile Delta it was inevitable that nomads, possessed of virile physiques, but hitherto restricted by lack of food and water, would rapidly multiply. The moder n East presents many analogies. The alarm which, according to the biblical narrative, this increase aroused in the minds of the Egyptians is in perfect keeping with the fear with which the dwellers of the Nile always regarded the Bedouin. According to the oldest Hebrew records, the part of Egypt in which the Hebrews settled was the land of Goshen. There is little doubt regarding its general situation. In its broadest bounds, it apparently included the Wadi Tumilat.

If there were really a wall that extended in solid and continuous form across the stretches of sand and waste from a point near Pelusium southward to Suez, and thence to Heliopolis, a constant menace and barrier to invading enemies and a shield and protection to the fertile plains of lower Egypt, it is a most important fact, and the name of the desert of the "Wall" would have been exceedingly appropriate. The question, however, is as to its actual existence. Such a structure must have left its marks scattered upon the page of Egyptian literature so that there should be no question.

An unpublished papyrus held in St. Petersburg ascribes its construction to Snofru of the fourth dynasty. Another early mention of this Wall is in an ancient papyrus of the Twelfth Dynasty (of the olds Egyptian empire, which was obtained by Lepsius for the Museum of Berlin. The builder of the wall is named as Amenemhet I (Sehetepibre) who reigned 1991-1962 BC.

This Twelfth Dynasty papyrus gives the story of Sineh, or Saneha, an Egyptian traveler into the lands eastward from Egypt. In the story of Sinuhe there is a reference to the "Wall of the Prince." As he journeyed, he came to the frontier Wall "which the king had made to keep off the Sakti," or eastern foreigners. It was a closely guarded barrier. There were " watchers upon the Wall in daily rotation." Eluding the sentries in the darkness of the night, he wandered beyond in a dry and thirsty land, like that which the Hebrews found in that same Wilderness of the Wall several centuries after him, when their cry was, "What shall we drink ?" His story was:

"Thirst overtook me in my journey; 
My throat was parched, 
I said, This is the taste of death."

Chabas understands the term "Anbu," which is here rendered the Wall, and which is of frequent recurrence in the Egyptian records, to refer to a defensive Wall built across the eastern front of Lower Egypt by the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty — Amenemhat I. And Ebers coincides fully with Chabas in this understanding. The wall may not have been a continuous barrier, since Sinuhe was able to pass it without having to climb over it.

That the "Wall" of the Egyptian frontier was not limited to a single small fortress near the Lake Serbonis, as would seem to be intimated in this explanation by Brugsch, is apparent from his own History, while it is also abundantly evidenced from various other sources. In speaking of Aahmes, or Amasis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Brugsch says that, having driven out the eastern foreigners from Egypt, the king sufficiently protected the eastern frontier of the Low Country against new invasions by a line of fortresses.

The 19th dynasty, discussed both in Josephus and in Eusebius, is the time of Sesostris (probably Rameses II), with whom the histories of Herodotus and Diodorus may be said to begin. Diodorus says that Sesostris built a great wall from Chetam (Pelusium) to Heliopolis, commenced by his father Seti I, for the protection of the northern frontier against the incursions of the Syrians and Arabs. The ascription of it to Sesostris is explained by the supposition that he repaired it, its first mention having come from the twelfth dynasty.

Diodorus Siculus in his Library of History (Book I) section 58, relates "Now Sesoösis threw up many great mounds of earth and moved to them such cities as happened to be situated on ground that was not naturally elevated, in order that at the time of the flooding of the river both the inhabitants and their herds might have a safe place of retreat. And over the entire land from Memphis to the sea he dug frequent canals leading from the river, his purpose being that the people might carry out the harvesting of their crops quickly and easily, and that, through the constant intercourse of the peasants with one another, every district might enjoy both an easy livelihood and a great abundance of all things which minister to man's enjoyment. The greatest result of this work, however, was that he made the country secure and difficult of access against attacks by enemies; for practically all the best part of Egypt, which p201before this time had been easy of passage for horses and carts, has from that time on been very difficult for an enemy to invade by reason of the great number of canals leading from the river. He also fortified with a wall the side of Egypt which faces east, as a defence against inroads from Syria and Arabia; the wall extended through the desert from Pelusium to Heliopolis, and its length was some fifteen hundred stades."

Heliopolis lies 90 miles (not 188) Southwest of Pelusium: this wall, if it existed at all, would have run on the edge of the desert which extends North of Wady Tumeilat from Kantarah] to Tell el-Kebir; but this line, on the borders of Goshen, is evidently much too far West to have any connection with the desert of Shur, East of the Gulf of Suez.

Another element of confusion, which is also an added explanation of the twofold origin of the Wall, is found in the ambiguity attaching to the identity of the king mentioned by Diodorus as its builder. Manetho gives the name of "Sesostris" as a king in the Twelfth Dynasty; yet the Sesostris referred to by Diodorus, and by Greek historians before and after him, has been commonly understood to be Rameses II, with more or less of the added glory of his immediate predecessors. Birch and Brugsch would identify Bameses II with Sesostris. Villiers Stuart prefers an identification with Rameses III. Kenrick and Lenormant count the story of Sesostris a growth rather than a history, a traditional composition rather than an individual character; that "a legend gradually formed in the course of ages, attributing to one person all the exploits of the conquerors and warlike princes of Egypt, both of Thothmes and Seti, as well as of the various Rameses, and magnifying these exploits by extending them to every known country, as legends always do."

No trace of the wall built by Sesostris has been discovered, but there are indisputable references to it in Egyptian texts. In one of the Anastasi Papyri, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, preserved in the British Museum, this Wall is mentioned in the report from a scribe of an effort to re-capture two fugitive slaves who had fled towards the eastern desert; and who, before he could overtake them, had already "got beyond the region of the Wall to the north of the migdol of king Seti Mineptah." In explanation of the term Wall as found in this papyrus, Brugsch says that there was at that time " at the entrance, of the road leading to Palestine, near the Lake Sirbonis, a small fortification, to which, as early as the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians gave the name Anbu, that is ' the wall,' or ' fence,' a name which the Greeks translated according to their custom. The Hebrews likewise rendered the meaning of the Egyptian name by a translation, designating the military post on the Egyptian frontier by the name of 'Shur,' which in their language signifies exactly the same as the word 'Anbu' in Egyptian, and the word 'Gerrhon' in Greek, namely the 'Wall.'"

Abulfeda, early in the fourteenth century, gave the Arabic traditions of the building of the Great Wall of Egypt. His Arabic designations of the Pharaohs mentioned (Delukah, Darkon, Ibn-Bekthus, Todas, etc.), do not help to the identifying of the dynasties; but his narrative evidently has to do with the time of the expulsion of the Hykshos kings, — or the "Amalekites " as he calls them, — and the domination of their successors. Of the king Delukah, — "who is called El-'Ajoos," or "The Old Woman," — Abulfeda says: "And he built before the land of Egypt, from one of its regions at the edge of Aswan, to the other, a Wall contiguous to this end," — the eastern or Arabian side. It is noteworthy that the Arabic word here used for Wall is "Sura," an equivalent of the Hebrew "Shur."

In 1835 Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875) noted that at the Wadee e' Dayr near Thebes "A ruined crude brick wall ascends the low hills on the south side of this valley, and appears again at the ravine, thence called Wadee el Agoos, between the steep and lofty cliffs of Gebel e'Tayr, beyond the convent of Sitteh Mariam el Adra. This wall, known by the name of Gisr el Agoos, or " the Old Man's Dyke," is said to have been built by a king of Egypt, and to have extended from the sea to E'Souan, at the edge of the cultivated land on either bank. On the west I have met with it in the Fyoom, and on the east I have traced its course along the cliffs which approach the Nile, as at Shekh Embarak, e' Serareeh, Gebel e' Tayr, Shekh Timay, e' Souan, and on other mountains of this bank; and in the cultivated land to the east of Benoob el Hamam, and to the north-east of Qoos : but from the present extent of the inundation few traces are left of its existence in these low lands, which, though they once marked the edge of the desert, now form part of the cultivated plain of Egypt. That this wall was raised to check the incursions of the Arabs (for these deserts were formerly, as now, inhabited by similar wandering tribes) is highly probable, as the intent of it was evidently to prevent an ingress from that quarter, since it extends along the openings of the ravines, and is not carried over those cliffs, whose perpendicular faces being precipitous and impassable, obviated the necessity of its continuation."

The wall, said by Diodorus to have been built by Sesostris, on both sides of the valley, at the edge of the cultivated land, with a view to protect the peasants and their crops from the wandering Arabs. By this the Arabs were prevented from coming to the valley, and obtaining corn, except at certain points where ingress and egress were permitted ; and a small body of troops, or the peasants themselves, sufficed to prevent any disregard of these regulations.

While many accept the Wall limits as given by Diodorus, Wilkinson seems inclined to extend the line of Wall very greatly, which he would sustain out of the facts of his own observing. He says explicitly : "That such a Wall was actually made by one of the Egyptian monarchs, we have positive proof from the vestiges which remain in different parts of the valley. It was not confined to Lower Egypt, or to the east of the Delta from Pelusium to Heliopolis, but continued to the Ethiopian frontier at Syene; and though the increase of the alluvial deposit has almost concealed it in the low lands overflowed during the inundation of the waters of the Nile, it is traced in many of the higher parts, especially when founded upon the rocky eminences bordering the river. The modern Egyptians have several idle legends respecting this Wall, some of which ascribe it to a king, or rather to a queen, anxious to prevent an obnoxious stranger from intruding on the retirement of her beautiful daughter: and the name applied to it is Gisr el Agoos, or ' the Old Woman's Dyke.M It is of crude brick: the principal portion that remains may be seen at Gebel e' Tayr, a little below Minyeh; and I have even traced small fragments of the same kind of building on the western side of the valley, particularly in the Fyoom."

The existence of fortifications about Pelusium has been long known, and for various reasons it is believed that the Egyptian Maktal (which Brugsch identified with the Hebrew Migdol, "watch tower," the Magdolo of the Itinerary, 12 miles south of Pelusium) was a fortified place on the line of eastern defences. Upon these facts the theory of a continuous wall was built, supported only by the evidence of Diodorus as to its continuity. Where the lakes or swamps extended, there was no need of a wall; and particularly the so-called Bitter Lakes. At such points as these isolated fortifications sufficed. A glance at the map shows that the isthmus contains a series of lakes—Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes. While most of these are shallow, they do not afford means by which land communication can be had. The roads ran between the bodies of water named, and on these roads were the necessary means of protection. One coming into the Delta from Asia in early Egyptian times found before him a series of well-fortified places, which were intended as a protection against incursions of Asiatics. These evidently are the "walls of the ruler", built for the repulse of the Asiatics. This is the view which has generally obtained. At all events, the only proof of a continuous wall comes from a doubtful interpretation of Diodorus, and not from the Egyptian records.

Sharpe, on the other hand, referring to Procopius, tells of the remains "of the Roman Wall" built in the days of Diocletian as a protection against the inroads of troublesome neighbors from the south of Egypt; remains which are still to be seen at the east of the Nile, north of the first cataract. And it is certainly not unfair to suppose that different portions of the Egyptian border were walled at different times against different enemies, and that the remains of any and all of these different walls are liable to be connected in the minds of the Arabs, and even in the minds of intelligent discoverers, with the traditions and history of the Great Wall.

As to the confusion concerning the period of the original building of the Wall, a plausible explanation at once suggests itself. At least as early as the Twelfth Dynasty — prior to the Hykshos domination — this Wall was erected to guard against incursions from the East. But, during the Hykshos supremacy it was probably leveled to the ground, or suffered to fall into disuse and decay; because it was in the direction of the friends rather than the foes of the ruling power of Egypt. Yet Manetho, as quoted in Josephus's Against Apion, Book I., \ 14, tells of a line of defenses erected by a Hykshos king along his eastern border " for fear of an invasion from the Assyrians." This, however, may have been a temporary rebuilding of the before neglected Great Wall. On the expulsion of the Hykshos, however, this Wall would hardly fail to be rebuilt at once, and its defenses strengthened, in order to keep out the dreaded enemies from the East. The rebuilding of the Wall would, as a matter of course, be claimed as its original building. That was the way of Egyptian kings.