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Other Archaeological Sites / The Neolithic of the Levant (500 Page Book Online) Ancient Migdol in Egypt
... the specification of a fortress of Sethee I favors the opinion that Migdol was a common name of frontier towers. Brugsch makes the Maktir or Migdol of Sethee I identical with the Magdolo of the Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus; with the Migdol-Magdalon of Jeremiah and Ezekiel; and the Migdol of the Books of Moses (Page 261 in Geographische Inschriften) (Page 1931 in 6) ...
MIGDOL (Hebrew מְִגדֹּל) from the Encyclopaedia Judaica Volume 14 Page 207 (2007) (2) Egyptian border fortress near Baal-Zephon (Exodus 14:2; Numbers 33:7) inhabited by Jews in Jeremiah’s time (626-587 B.C.) (Jeremiah 44:1; Ezekiel 29:10). It is the Greek Magdolos and the Migdol of Baalsephon in the demotic Cairo papyrus (31.169) (684-30 B.C.). It is present-day Tell al-Khayrī near Pelusium [Michael Avi-Yonah] (A).
There were at least two sites in the bible named Migdol: the Migdol referred to by Jeremiah and Ezekiel located near Pelusium, and the Migdol on the route of the Exodus located near Succoth. Both may have been part of a line of border fortresses or migdols designed to provide protection for Egypt against invasion from the Sinai (4).
(A) Encyclopaedia Judaica Volume 14 Page 207 (2007)
(1) Karnak: étude topographique et archéologique by Auguste Mariette (1875)
(2) The Struggle of the Nations: Egypt, Syria and Assyria by Gaston Maspero (1896)
(3) MIGDOL --- Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
(4) Migdol in the Holman Bible Dictionary at © 2001-2018 StudyLight.org
(5) Berossus and Genesis --- Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch by Russell Gmirkin (2006)
(6) Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography and Natural History --- Volume 3 -- Pages 1930-1 (1877)
(7) Tyndale Bible Dictionary by Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort (2001)
 The Nile delta at the time of Herodotus according to James Rennell (1800) --- The Greek Classical period (510 BC - 323 BC) based on the writings of Herodotus (484 BC - 425 BC)
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Scholars generally hold that Migdol is likely an Egyptian pronunciation for the Hebrew migh·dalʹ meaning tower; and that it doubtless refers to a military post or watchtower on the Egyptian border. However there is evidence that there were several such Migdols along the Egyptian border; even today there are three different villages bearing the name Mashtul, the present form of Migdol in Egyptian (of Coptic derivation) (
