IFAO

More than 100 years ago a flurry of archaeological activity at Tell Timai, the ancient city of Thmouis, showed it to be one of the most promising and best preserved Graeco-Roman settlements in Egypt. Within a few decades archaeologists moved on to more monumental sites leaving Thmouis to the ravishes of systematic sacking by sebbakhin. Archaeologically, aside from a brief investigation in the 1960s by the New York University, Tell Timai lay neglected. Recently, as the neighboring towns began to encroach on the site Dr. Redford asked Robert Littman and Jay Silverstein to intervene and see if a new investigation could be started to save the site from imminent destruction.

Since 2007 the Tell Timai Project has been gathering momentum, supplementing the MSA salvage efforts and beginning a series of surveys and excavations collecting new data about the chronology, history, and lives of Thmouis. The twin cities of Thmouis and Mendes define an archaeological zone of exceptional importance to Egyptian and World patrimony. A keystone of the Tell Timai Project is to integrate the Mendes-Thmouis archaeological area into the larger strategic plan for conservation and development of tourism in the Nile Delta.