Found in Egypt the legendary elephants port of Berenike
Use elephants in war? This is the unusual use of the legendary port-fortress recently discovered in Egypt. A Polish-American archaeological group has found the remains of what they believe to be the fortified outpost of the ancient port of Berenike, from which the armies of elephants left for the overseas front. A Hellenistic site dating back to 2,300 years ago, built by the dynasty of Pharaohs descended from Ptolemy, one of the generals of Alexander the Great.
The largest and most fortified part of Berenike port develops for 160 meters of length and 80 meters of width: strong walls that delimit three large courtyards, where there were warehouses, laboratories and shops. "An enormous closed fortified complex," explain archaeologists Marek Wozniakand and Joanna Radkowska, whose "most impressive aspect is its well-constructed monumental architecture, which has remained covered and protected so far from the sand".
The first ruins of the Greek-Roman port were found in 2012 by the teams led by Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware and Iwona Zych of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology, but took years to the experts to date the discovery. "A double line of walls protected the western part of the fortress, while only one was sufficient further east and north," suggesting that the defenders were less worried about an attack from that direction, say Wozniak and and Radkowska.
Inside the fortress, however, archaeologists have found a drain drilled into the rock and a series of drainage cans that store and distribute both spring and rain water, suggesting that Berenike "had a more humid climate than today». Also on the site were found terracotta figurines, coins, a piece of a skull of a young elephant and two large pools that could have a capacity of over 17 thousand liters.
The historical documents indicate Berenike as one of the ports built along the Red Sea specifically to supply war elephants to the Ptolemies' army, to then be converted into a commercial port. And from what the remains tell, "it is interesting to note that the administrators of Berenike at some point no longer considered the fortifications necessary, since some were deliberately dismantled," say the experts, also underlining that "it was not found no evidence of attacks against the fort".
For more info: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/berenike-trogodytika-a-hellenistic-fortress-on-the-red-sea-coast-egypt/D815A772801F3CAE73555CE6726DD8E9
