View source for Mendes

==Ruins==
[[File:Ushabti of pharaoh Hakor, Louvre.jpg|thumb|[[Ushabti]] of pharaoh [[Hakor]], found at Mendes]]
The site is today the largest surviving [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]] in the Nile delta, and consists of both Tell El-Ruba (the site of the main temple enclosure) and [[Tell El-Timai]] (the settlement site of Thmuis to the south). Overall, Mendes is about 3&nbsp;km long from north to south and averages about 900m east-to-west. An [[Old Kingdom]] [[necropolis]] is estimated to contain over 9,000 [[interment]]s. Several campaigns of 20th-century excavations have been led by [[North America]]n institutions, including [[New York University]] and the [[University of Toronto]], as well as a [[Pennsylvania State University]] team led by [[Donald Redford]]. Under the direction of Redford, the current excavations are concentrating on a number of areas in and around the main temple. 

Work on the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] processional-style temple has recently uncovered foundation deposits of [[Merenptah]] below the second [[Pylon (architecture)|pylon]]. It is thought that four separate pylons or gates existed. Evidence has suggested that their construction dates from at least the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]], as [[foundation deposit]]s were uncovered. The original structures were buried, added to, or incorporated into later ones over time by later rulers. 

A cemetery of sacred rams was discovered in the northwest corner of Tell El-Ruba. Monuments bearing the names of [[Ramesses II]], Merneptah, and [[Ramesses III]] were also found. A temple attested by its foundation deposits was built by [[Amasis II]]. The tomb of [[Nepherites I]], which Donald Redford concluded was destroyed by the [[Achaemenids|Persians]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Redford | first = Donald B. | author-link = Donald B. Redford | title = Excavations at Mendes | publisher = Brill | year = 2004 | pages = 34 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tlpiAAAACAAJ&q=delta+reports| isbn = 978-90-04-13674-8 }}</ref> was discovered by a joint team from the [[University of Washington]] and the University of Toronto in 1992–1993. 

On the edge of the [[temple mound]], a [[sondage]] supervised by [[Matthew J. Adams]] has revealed uninterrupted [[Stratification (archeology)|stratification]] from the Middle Kingdom down to the [[First Dynasty of Egypt|First Dynasty]]. Coring results suggest that future excavations in that sondage should expect to take the stratification down into the Buto-Maadi Period. The material excavated so far is already the longest uninterrupted stratification for all of the Nile Delta, and possibly for all of Egypt.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Matthew J.|last=Adams|title=An Interim Report on the Naqada III – First Intermediate Period Stratification at Mendes|journal=Delta Reports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlpiAAAACAAJ&q=delta+reports|issue=1|date=2009|pages=121–206|isbn=9781842172445}}</ref>