The statues, however, and
especially a large stele, are extremely valuable, since they tell the
history of the city during eighteen centuries. From a study of these
monuments, M. Naville has learned that Pithom was its sacred, and Thukut
(Succoth) its civil, name; that it was founded by Rameses II., restored
by Shishak and others of the twenty-second dynasty; was an important
place under the Ptolemies, who set up a great stele to commemorate the
founding of the city of Arsinoe in the neighborhood; was called Hero or
Herooepolis by the Greeks (a name derived from the hieroglyphic _ara_,
meaning a "store house"), and Ero Castra by the Romans, who occupied it
at all events as late as A.D. 306. Indications are also found of the
position of Pihahiroth, where the Israelites encamped before the
passage of the "Reedy Sea," and of Clysma. All these data are directly
contradictory to preconceived theories: Pithom, Succoth, Herooepolis,
Pihahiroth, and Clysma had all been hypothetically placed in totally
different positions. The identification of Pithom with Succoth gives us
the first absolutely certain point as yet established in the route of
the Exodus, and completely overthrows Dr.
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