Tell es-Sakan

Tell es-Sakan (lit. 'Hill of Ash') is a mound created by the accumulation of the remains of consecutive settlements, located about 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Gaza City in Palestine. This tell was the site of two separate Early Bronze Age urban settlements. During Ancient Egypt's expansion into southwestern Canaan in the latter half of the 4th millennium BCE, Tell es-Sakan was founded as an administrative centre for the Egyptian colonies in the region. It was inhabited from about 3300 BCE to 3000 BCE. After a period of abandonment, a Canaanite city was established around 2600 BCE and inhabited until about 2250 BCE, after which Tell es-Sakan was permanently abandoned. Tell es-Sakan functioned as a trading post and was positioned along what was probably a dried-up channel of the Wadi Ghazzeh – a watercourse that is dry most of the year but in the Bronze Age would have been navigable. The settlement may have been a successor to Taur Ikhbeineh, a nearby site inhabited in the 34th century BCE. At its discovery in 1998, Tell es-Sakan was the oldest known Egyptian fortification and the only known Egyptian fortified settlement beyond the Nile Valley. A fortification of a potentially similar age was found at the Egyptian settlement of Tel Erani in 2013. After the Canaanite city of Tell es-Sakan was abandoned in the 23rd century BCE, Tell el-Ajjul was established 500 m

Monument data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).