When journeying northeast from Cairo, a traveler will eventually reach the geographical line which sharply divides the Nile Delta and the Sinai. This is where the verdant fields of grain, little irrigation ditches, and thick loamy soil give way to the arid desert of the peninsula. Outcroppings of limestone, tempered with fragments of ancient fossils, and driving sands characterize the region. This border region hosted the impressive fortress of Tell el-Retaba, fortified and expanded more than 3,000 years ago during the reign of Egypt’s militaristically minded pharaoh, Ramesses the Great….
