Literature and discovery therefore go hand in hand here remarkably closely. [Illustration: 38. RESTORATION OF THE FORT, SHOWING THE LARGE PLATFORM BEFORE THE ENTRY.] This place then appears to have been an old fort on the Syrian frontier guarding the road out of Egypt; and here Psamtik settled part of his ‘brazen men from the sea,’ and built a great fortress and camp, the twin establishment to that of the rest of the Greek mercenaries at Naukratis, on the Libyan side. The fort was a square mass of brickwork, with deep domed chambers or cells in it, which were opened from the top; this sustained the actual dwellings at about forty feet above the plain, so that a clear view of the distant [Illustration: 39. FOUNDATION DEPOSIT. 1: 2.] towns and the desert could be seen over the camp wall, to some ten or twenty miles. The camp was defended by a wall forty feet thick, and probably as high; but this is now completely swept away down to the ground by the winds and rains. Beneath each corner of the fort was placed a set of plaques of various materials, both metals and stones, with the name of Psamtik, and at the south-west corner were also the bones of a sacrifice and other ceremonial deposits. This fort was enlarged by chambers added to it during a couple of generations later; and it must have been over that threshold which still lies in the doorway that the Jewish fugitives entered, when Hophra gave them an asylum from the Assyrian scourge. We cannot doubt that Tahpanhes--the first place on the road into Egypt--was a constant refuge for the Jews during the series of Assyrian invasions; especially as they met here, not the exclusive Egyptians, but a mixed foreign population, mostly Greeks. Here then was a ready source for the introduction of Greek words and names into Hebrew, long before the Alexandrine age; and even before the fall of Jerusalem the Greek names of musical instruments, and other words, may have been heard in the courts of Solomon’s temple. Another remarkable connection with the account given by Jeremiah was found on clearing around the fort. The entrance was in the side of a block of building projecting from the fort; and in front of it, on the opposite side of its roadway, similarly projecting from the fort, was a large platform or pavement of brickwork (see fig. 38), suitable for out-door business, such as loading goods, pitching tents, &c.,--just what is now called a _mastaba_. Now Jeremiah writes of ‘the pavement (or brickwork) which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes’ (chap. xliii. 9, R.V.); this passage, which has been an unexplained stumbling-block to translators hitherto, is the exact description of the _mastaba_ which I found; and this would be the most likely place for Nebuchadrezzar to pitch his royal tent, as stated by Jeremiah.