Phoinikon Watchtower
About
An inscription dated around 72 CE makes this one of the earliest Flavian watch-posts on the Koptos-Berenike road, built barely two years into Vespasian's reign. Its garrison tracked caravans and travelers crossing the desert toward the Red Sea port. The post stayed manned for nearly two centuries after its founding.
What happened here
A small stone tower with a timber top, sited so that it can see the next one along the line. Half a dozen men live in it. They watch the ground in front, and they watch the tower on either side. A signal — fire and smoke at night, something visible by day — passes a warning down the chain far faster than a rider can, though it can only carry a message that was agreed in advance. The rest of the time it is a lookout post on a road, a river crossing or a frontier line, and the work is boredom punctuated by inspections. Supplies come up from the fort behind. Towers on a frontier stand within sight of each other for hundreds of miles.
Sources
Nearby
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