TANIS. - Ancient Egyptian city, about 25 km from present-day es-Salihijjah near the village of Şan el-Hağar on a canal that was once part of the Tanitic branch of the Nile.

According to Num. 13:23, T. (Heb. Şo'an) was founded seven years after Hebron; but its origins must be more remote. Characteristic of it is the cult of the god Seth, probably brought there by the Hyksos (v.); famous is the sanctuary of this god founded by Ramses II; its ruins survive on the site; important sculptural remains are in the Cairo Museum.

Ps. 77:12 and 43 recall the campaigns of T., where God did marvelous things at the time of the Exodus. During the XXI dynasty T. was for more than a century the capital of the country, so that Is. 19:11 and 13 gives particular importance to the "princes of T." In 667 B.C. it was sacked by Ashurbanipal and later by Nebuchadnezzar (hence the prophecy of Ez. 30:14-18). In the time of Strabo (XVII, 802) it was still a flourishing city; in the second half of the 1st century A.D. (Fl. Josephus, Bell. Iud., IV, 11, 5) it was in decline.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Fl. Petrie, T., I. London 1885; M. A. Murray - F. L. Griffith, T., II-IV, ibid. 1888; H. Gauthier, Dict. des noms géograph., I, Cairo 1929, pp. 30, 74, 200 and passim; P. Montet, Les nouvelles fouilles de T., Paris 1933; id., T., ibid. 1942.

Aristide Calderini

@incollection{ec11_tanis, author = {Calderini, Aristide}, title = {Tanis}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1731}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tanis} }

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