Pelusium Eastern Sea Harbour (Sinus Pelusiacus Open Harbour)
Pelusium East Harbour · Sinus Pelusiacus · Pelusiac Roadstead
Saite to Byzantine (664 BCE – 640 CE)·Saite / Persian / Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine·🇪🇬 North Sinai, Farama East Beach, Egypt
About
About Pelusium Eastern Sea Harbour (Sinus Pelusiacus Open Harbour)
Eastern (open sea) harbour of Pelusium – the broad roadstead of the Sinus Pelusiacus outside the Pelusiac Nile mouth, where Cambyses' Persian fleet, Pompey's trireme and the Byzantine Red Sea grain fleet anchored. Unlike the western Nile harbour, the eastern harbour was an exposed offshore anchorage with a submerged rubble breakwater (40 m at –2.5 m) and anchor field 300 m offshore recorded by Jean-Yves Carrez-Maratray diver survey 1995–. Harbour mud cores 3 m offshore contain Roman amphora sherds at –3 m and 5th c. BCE Persian arrowheads. The beach exposes a line of limestone sinker weights and Byzantine jetty footings at –1 m.
Why it mattersOnly Pelusian open sea harbour preserving Persian to Byzantine fleet anchorage; documents 15 km coastline advance since antiquity.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether eastern harbour had built mole or was natural roadstead behind Pelusian sand spit
- 02Persian vs Byzantine phases of breakwater
Theories
- 01Sinus Pelusiacus name fossilizes broad Pelusian roadstead navigation
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Open anchorage from Saite times; breakwater Ptolemaic 3rd c. BCE
- Period
- Saite to Byzantine (664 BCE – 640 CE)
- Culture
- Saite / Persian / Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine
- Purpose
- Fleet anchorage for Sinai campaigns – Cambyses 525 BCE, Antiochus, Byzantine grain
- Abandoned
- 640 CE abandonment + coastline progradation 15 km
- Rediscovered
- French Pelusium eastern survey 1995–
- Excavation
- Submerged
Open anchorage from Saite times; breakwater Ptolemaic 3rd c. BCE
Initial construction
c. 1436 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
31.0450° N · 32.5700° E · -3 m · 3 mapped features
Eastern Rubble Breakwater
moleRubble breakwater 40 m at –2.5 m off east beach – Ptolemaic harbour work
31.0455° N · 32.5710° EPelusian Anchor Field
anchorageOffshore anchor field 300 m off strand at –3 m with Persian arrowheads layer
31.0460° N · 32.5730° EByzantine Jetty Footings (East Strand)
harbourByzantine jetty footings at –1 m on east beach – late antique quays
31.0445° N · 32.5690° E