Study of the Relations between the Regional History and World History in the Port Cities : Archaeological, Historical and Anthropological Studies at the Raya, al-Tur and Suez Port

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We have conducted three-season excavations at the Raya site and the site of Wadi al-Tur Monastery. As the result of the excavations, we found an old-style mosque that had existed around the 9^<th> century in the tort of the Raya site. The upper part of the mihrab was buried in a restorable condition. The rosette pattern was described in the circumference of the mihrab. The discovery of the mosque will be the evidence that the Islamization in the Sinai Peninsula had thought to be occurred in the Fatimid period but the date was about two centuries earlier.The mass of rock inscriptions on Mt. Naqus we found in 2000 was one of the greatest sites in quantity in Egypt. Nine hundred and thirty Arabic inscriptions were included in about 1,700 inscriptions. The epigraphic study of these inscriptions proved that they are the first-hand records of the travelers, which show their home places and traveling dates. It proved that the rock inscriptions are the unknown historical materials of the study … More of trade and pilgrimage routes.In addition, through the discovery of the inscriptions we found that the seacoast of Abu Qabus and Naqus fleet were used as the ports, which has been unknown. The network of land-route in South Sinai, whose center is St. Catherine Monastery, was connected with the network of sea-route not only at one point, i.e. Raya port or al-Tur port, but at the coastal belt of 30 km.The study of routes in South Sinai has not been made because of lack of literature, but the study of maqam (shrine of saint) and the study of rock inscriptions are in the process of clarifying the existence of the routes.Varieties of artifacts were found from the above-mentioned two sites and al-Tur-Kilani site. Lots of materials for the study of international relations, inside and outside of the Middle East area have been piled up, for example, al-Tur documents, Radi Family documents, Raya papyri, Chinese ceramics, Islamic ceramics, luster-painted ceramics, glassware, metalwork, steatite objects, box-shaped clay incense burners, a gold coin of the Caliph al-Ma mun period, etc. The archaeological studies of this region will reveal not only the regional history of the Raya and al-Tur area, but also the history of the relations between the area and the outer world. Less