Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a large stone inscription naming King Ramses II at an ancient temple site near the country’s eastern border. The find adds new evidence that may confirm the location of the long-lost city of Mesen.
It was made by an Egyptian mission working at Tell Abu Seifi in Qantara East, in Ismailia governorate. The excavation is part of a wider effort to trace the ancient Horus military road that once guarded Egypt’s frontier with Sinai.
The team, working under Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, completed the excavation of a massive mudbrick wall this season. The wall was previously mistaken for the temple itself. Researchers now identify it as the outer boundary of the surrounding precinct.
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy said the results add to ongoing efforts to document sites across North Sinai and the Qantara region. He said the work underscores the area’s historic role in defending Egypt’s eastern border and its significance along the ancient Horus road.
Temple layout and Ramses II inscription emerge from Egypt dig
Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the season’s work built on decades of prior excavation. It allowed researchers to reexamine earlier findings with greater precision and clarify the site’s original layout.
Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the council’s Egyptian antiquities sector, said the mission traced two successive stone roads leading into the temple. A wider Ptolemaic path lay beneath a narrower Roman one. The team also found storage rooms to the north, service rooms to the south, and an inner sanctuary destroyed by quarrying in the late Roman period.
Mission head Hisham Hussein said one of the most significant discoveries in Egypt was half of a large sandstone lintel bearing an inscription of Ramses II.
It also references restoration work once carried out on a statue of the god Horus, described as “Lord of the city of Mesen.” Researchers consider this detail key evidence in identifying the site.
Statue finds, and Roman-era kilns reveal site’s later history
Mission director Mahmoud Gala said finds also included part of a schist statue of a 26th dynasty army scribe holding a broken shrine. Excavators also found a headless statue from Egypt’s Late Period, a basalt royal torso, and fragments of falcon statues in basalt and limestone.
Researchers said the temple reached its architectural peak during the Ptolemaic period. Parts of the site later became a Roman military barracks, known as a “Castrum,” in the third century. The site was then turned into a lime quarry, where two large kilns were built over the ruined sanctuary using burned limestone blocks.
Officials said the findings support, but do not yet confirm, the long-standing hypothesis that Tell Abu Seifi is the site of ancient “Mesen.” They said excavations will continue in coming seasons.
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