In the year 1883 the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded for the purpose of accurate historical investigation in Egypt.  The first work undertaken was on a mound called the Tel-el-Mashuta, in the Wadi-et-Tumi-lat.  This place was discovered to be the site of the ancient Pithom, a treasure-city supposed to have been built by the Israelites for Pharaoh.  In the Greek and Roman period the same place had been called Hereopolis.  M. Naville also discovered Succoth, the first camping-ground of the Israelites while fleeing from their oppressor, and an inscription with the word “Pikeheret,” which he judged to be the Pihahiroth of the Book of Exodus.  The next season the site of Zoan of the Bible was explored, a village now termed San.

Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie started work where a rim of red granite stood up upon one of the many mounds in the neighbourhood.  The site of the ancient city had been here, and the granite rim was on the site of a temple.  The latter had two enclosure walls, one of which had been built of sun-dried bricks, and was of extreme antiquity; the other was built of bricks of eight times the size and weight of modern bricks, and the wall was of very great strength.  Dwelling-houses had been built in the locality, and coins and potsherds discovered.  These remains Professor Petrie found to belong to periods between the sixth and twenty-sixth dynasties.  Stones were found in the vicinity with the cartouche of King Papi from one of the earliest dynasties.  There were also red granite statues of Ahmenemhait I., and a black granite statue of Kind Usirtasen I. and of King Ahmenemhait II., and a torso of King Usirtasen II. was found cut from yellow-stained stone, together with a vast number of relics of other monarchs.  Parts of a giant statue of King Ramses II. were discovered which must have been ninety-eight feet in height before it was broken, the great toe alone measuring eighteen inches across, and the weight of the statue estimated to be about 1,200 tons.  In addition to these relics of ancient monarchs, a large number of antiquities were discovered, with remains of objects for domestic use in ancient Egyptian society.

The explorations conducted at Tanis during 1883-84 brought to light objects mainly of the Ptolemaic period, because a lower level had not at that period been reached, but here many invaluable relics of Ptolemaic arts were unearthed.  The results of researches were published at this date bearing upon the Great Pyramid.  Accurate measurements had been undertaken by Professor Petrie, who was able to prove that during one epoch systematic but unavailing efforts had been made to destroy these great structures.

Professor Maspero discovered among the hills of Thebes an important tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which threw light upon obscure portions of Egyptian history, and contained texts of the “Book of the Dead.”  The following year he discovered the necropolis of Khemnis in the neighbourhood of Kekhrneen, a provincial town in Upper Egypt built on the site of the ancient Panopolis.  The remains were all in a state of perfect preservation.