Leontopolis

Tell el- Yahudiya ( hill of the Jews, Greek Λεόντων πόλις, Leontopolis ) is an ancient city in the eastern Nile Delta 20 km northeast of Cairo and three kilometers south of Tell Basta.

Excavation history

1886-1887 led Edouard Naville and 1905-1906 William Matthew Flinders Petrie by excavations at Tell el- Yahudiya. In the 1950s, Shehata Adam delved also at this archaeological site.

Colonization in Pharaonic times

The place has been inhabited continuously from the 2nd intermediate to Roman times. WM Flinders Petrie ergrub a 515 × 490 meter tall perimeter wall that goes back probably to the Middle Kingdom or the second interval. The wall thickness was 60 meters, the height at least 11 meters. The interior was filled with sand ( high sand) and presented probably represent a primeval mound on which stood a shrine. In the northeastern part of the enclosure colossal statues of Ramses II have been found that suggest a temple he had built there again. Ramses III. was west of the Wall build a palace or temple in the ruins of thousands of pottery tiles were found.

The Jewish Temple of Onias

" (426) These words were approved by Ptolemy, and he gave him [the Onias ] a tract of land, which was 180 stadia from Memphis, situated in the so-called circles of Heliopolis. ( 427 ) Here, first put Onias a strong castle, and then went to the construction of the temple at Jerusalem should have no resemblance to the way, but got the shape of a tower and towering with his huge blocks to a height of 60 cubits. (428 ) The Construction of the burnt offering altar, however, he took the full in the home to the pattern, as he made the showpieces in the temple in very similar forms. Only work on the candlestick made ​​an exception, ( 429 ) by Onias here no candlestick bases apply an end, but only a golden lamp, radiating from the immediately make the light, and let float on a golden chain. The whole temple area was enclosed by a wall of burnt brick, but the gates were stone. "

Under Ptolemy VI. established the Jewish High Priest Onias IV, who had fled from Jerusalem before Antiochus IV, 170 BC a temple to the northeast of the enclosure. According to Flavius ​​Josephus, he built a fortress-like temple of large stone blocks, surrounded by a brick wall with stone gates. Instead of a state candlestick he hanged a golden lamp. The construction of a second Yahweh temple outside of Jerusalem was legitimized by a prophecy in the biblical Book of Isaiah, in which an altar of Yahweh in Egypt is predicted. Most of the Jews - even those in Egypt - rejected this sanctuary, but it was tolerated as a shrine next to the Temple in Jerusalem. The temple was closed 71 AD by Vespasian after a revolt of the Jews in Alexandria.

Archaeological evidence of it is not, the presence of Jews in this place is but occupied.