An-Nekhel Fortress: A Mamluk Pilgrimage Station in Egypt
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Egypt
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Bronze Age, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Egyptian, Mamluk
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page8 sections
History
An-Nekhel Fortress is a Mamluk fortress in Egypt, situated in central Sinai south of the modern settlement of an-Nakhl. Established between 1506 and 1516 during the reign of Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, it provided water, rest, and protection for pilgrims traveling between Egypt and the Hejaz, the western region of Arabia containing Mecca and Medina. The site occupied a long-used passage between Egypt and Arabia and later became involved in Ottoman and modern military campaigns.
Ancient and Medieval Routes
Archaeological remains at an-Nekhel date back to Ancient Egypt, showing that the location was used long before the surviving fortress. In the medieval period, it became a fortified station on the Cairo–Hejaz pilgrimage route. This route was in use at least during the reign of Sultan Baybars in the thirteenth century. The Mamluks, a military ruling class that governed Egypt and Syria, also controlled the routes leading toward the Hejaz and presented themselves as protectors of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required of able-bodied Muslims who can undertake it.
In 1483, the Christian pilgrim Felix Fabri traveled near an-Nekhel with a group heading toward Saint Catherine’s Monastery. The group recorded a large well known as the “Well of the Sultan.” During the pilgrimage season, a man reportedly used two camels to draw water for travelers throughout the day. The group chose not to approach the well because its reception there was uncertain.
The Mamluk Foundation
The historical fortress was built under Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, who ruled Egypt from 1501 to 1516. Its functions were closely tied to the pilgrimage route. The enclosure offered accommodation for guards and pilgrims, facilities for caravans to rest, and water installations in an otherwise barren part of Sinai. These services reflected the Mamluk sultans’ stated responsibility for protecting the Hajj and Islam’s holy places.
Ottoman and Nineteenth-Century Use
After Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517, the Ottoman Empire incorporated the country and maintained strategic infrastructure connected with the pilgrimage. An Ottoman intervention at an-Nekhel is dated either to the sixteenth century or to a renovation in 1705. The station continued to receive pilgrims from Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, and Spain, while Maghrebi soldiers, from North Africa, helped protect it.
During the nineteenth century, an-Nekhel remained linked to the pilgrimage route and also served military purposes. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who visited during the first decade of the century, described a garrison of about fifty soldiers. He also noted that the fortress functioned as a magazine supplying the Egyptian army during campaigns against the Wahhabis, adherents of an eighteenth-century Islamic reform movement founded in central Arabia.
The surrounding settlement housed former soldiers and their families. An early twentieth-century description mentions an officer and ten soldiers at the fort, fifteen to twenty village houses, and provisions brought from Gaza or Suez. Residents cultivated small plots when flooding reached Wadi el-Arish, and some kept camels. Pilgrims traveling from Cairo reportedly needed three days to reach an-Nekhel from Suez and a further three days to continue to Aqaba. Hyenas, which fed on dead camels, posed a danger along the route. Villagers reportedly avoided going out at night and kept dogs to deter them.
Decline and Twentieth-Century Conflicts
Around 1900, the pilgrimage route shifted toward the Gulf of Suez, and an-Nekhel declined. In 1915, Shakib Arslan, a Lebanese Druze intellectual and political activist, arrived at the fortress with 120 Druze volunteers. They intended to join the Ottoman offensive against the Suez Canal, but returned home after the offensive failed.
The Turkish army reportedly blew up the fortress during the First World War. On 17 February 1917, British cavalry columns supported by three aircraft and commanded by Colonel William Grant approached the site and found it abandoned. This was the final British action in the Sinai campaign against Ottoman forces. T. E. Lawrence later passed near the ruins in July 1917 while traveling from Aqaba to report to the British-Egyptian command.
During the Sinai Campaign of 1956, Israeli forces captured an-Nekhel on the evening of 30 October. Colonel Ariel Sharon’s 202 Paratroop Brigade was moving from Nitzana toward troops at the Mitla Pass. After the Egyptian Frontier Force position at Thamad was overcome, its surviving company withdrew to an-Nekhel, where another company was stationed. Air strikes and artillery bombardment brought the position down, and Egyptian forces retreated toward Suez and Al-Arish, leaving 56 dead.
On 7 June 1967, during the 1967 War, an-Nekhel fell to the Israel Defense Forces’ 14th Armored Brigade, part of Ariel Sharon’s 38th Division. The retreating Egyptian force included an infantry brigade and an armored brigade detached from the Egyptian 6th Mechanized Division. The battle cost Egypt 60 tanks, more than 100 guns, and 300 other vehicles. In 1969, the Israeli authorities exiled Haidar Abdel-Shafi, a lawyer and Palestinian political leader from Gaza, to an-Nekhel for three months.
An-Nekhel Fortress was placed on Egypt’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in the cultural category on 28 July 2003 under criteria (iii), (iv), and (vi). This list records sites considered suitable for possible future nomination, but it is not the same as inscription on the World Heritage List.
Remains
An-Nekhel Fortress survives as a square stone enclosure measuring approximately 28 metres on each side. Towers occupy the corners, while a reinforced guard tower projects from the center of the north wall. The arrangement enclosed a courtyard containing accommodation for guards and pilgrims, as well as facilities connected with caravan travel. Ancient remains and later military ruins form part of the archaeological setting, while wartime destruction and subsequent conflicts affected the condition and use of the site.
Fortress Enclosure
The walls define a compact square fort built of stone. The corner towers strengthened the enclosure, and the larger tower in the northern wall served as a guarded point within the defensive perimeter. The inner courtyard organized the living space for the garrison and travelers using the pilgrimage station. The fortress therefore combined defense with the practical needs of a route crossing central Sinai.
Water and Pilgrimage Facilities
Water installations were central to the fortress’s purpose. A large reservoir supplied pilgrims and received water from a brackish well, continuing the role associated with the earlier “Well of the Sultan.” An account from around 1930 still regarded the reservoir as a notable feature. The enclosure also included facilities for caravans to rest, linking its physical layout with the movement of Hajj pilgrims across the peninsula.
