| Formerly
called Tell el-Hagar, as it appears on the SoE 1:100,000 (1916) map. and
in the article by Farag, referred to below.
The asphalt road from Shirbin to Kafr Atrash can be used to reach this site. The mound itself is situated among the cultivation to the south of Atrash, but it is necessary to drive through the town to its eastern limit and then continue on a dirt road which goes right to the mound. This lies at a small village called Halbouny, and the site is now known locally as Tell Halbouny. Visited by J and P Spencer in April 2007. The surface of the mound is covered by deep layers of straw and other agricultural material, which conceals and surface features. At the south end the mound has been tested by the SCA with rows of small trenches. This work was done in preparation for release of the land for a waste-processing plant, but this has not yet been constructed. Excavations were carried out at this site in the 1940s by Kamal Farag, who found a stela with a text about the temple of Balamun: Farag, ASAE 39 (1939), 127-31. Note on the transfer of the name Tell el-Hagar: The original name
Tell el-Hagar has been transferred to a smaller mound some 2km further
north, in the fields east of Kafr Atrash, at 31 18 22N 31 31 29E.
The original name of this mound was Tell (Daoud) Mowrad, as it appears
on the SoE 1:25,000 series map of 1953. See under Mowrad, no. 688. The
SCA Damietta - Daqhaliya register lists Tell Mowrad, but is almost certainly
applying the name in error to Tell Halbouny.
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Photographs
by J and P Spencer 2007
Straw-covered surface of the mound
Above, below and left: location tested by SCA
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