20 EDOUARD NAVILLE ON 



These ponds or lakes are called by a Semitic word, barokabuta 



J^T¥JllE s ' theMrewn ^' Arabic 



The access to these lakes from the desert was possible 



through a stronghold called by a Semitic name 



fL khetem. A khetem is a kind of fortification which 



need not be considerable. It was specially destined to block 

 a passage or a road; it might be translated more correctly 

 a blockhouse. There were several khetem in Egypt. One 

 of the most frequently mentioned is the Khetem of Zar, which 

 was situate at the place now called Kantarah, on the Suez 

 canal. There is a representation of it on a wall of the great 

 temple of Karnak. It shows that the stronghold consisted 

 of two gateways, with walls and towers placed on each side 

 of a bridge, or possibly of a ford which crossed the Pehisiac 

 braDch of the Nile. It is natural to suppose that the Khetem 

 of Succoth was of the same nature as that of Zar, and that 

 it closed the place where, as we shall see further, the Red 

 Sea could be crossed. 



A very important fact concerning Succoth, for the know- 

 ledge of which we are indebted to the excavations made at 

 Pithom, is the vicinity of the Red Sea, which extended much 

 further north than it does now. Besides Pharaonic and 

 Ptolemaic texts, there were found two stones with Latin 

 inscriptions, giving us the Latin name of the city, Ero, or 

 Ero castra, in Greek Heroopolis. This city is often quoted by 

 Greek and Latin authors, who are unanimous in stating that 

 the city was built at the head of the Arabian Gulf, also called 

 Heroopolitan. Strabo and Pliny say it in the most distinct 

 way. Agathemeros says that the Arabian Gulf began at 

 Heroopolis. Artemidoros, quoted by Strabo, states that the 

 ships which went to the land of the Troglodytes sailed from 

 Heroopolis. Ptolemy fixes the latitude of the head of the 

 Heroopolitan gulf at one-sixth of a degree south of the city. 

 If it was so as late as Ptolemy ; if in his time the sea had not 

 yet receded to its present limits, certainly it had not at the 

 time of the Exodus. The extent of the Red Sea, at least as 

 far as the northern end of the Bitter Lakes, is proved also by 

 geological arguments. It is the opinion of Professor Edward 

 Hull,* and Sir William Dawson.f But I believe that at 

 the time of the Exodus the Red Sea extended still further, 



* "Journal of the Victoria Institute," Vol. XXI., pp. 13 and 21. 

 t " Modern Science and Bible Lands," pp. 392, 397. 



