This drawing shows the important features on and around Jezirat Faraun. The Moslem fortress commands the best position on the island from the high northern hill. Two southern hills hold Byzantine ruins. The island’s perimeter casemate wall (a double wall divided into small rooms by short perpendicular walls) and nine towers may date to Phoenician/Solomonic fumes in about the tenth century B.C., although some scholars contend that the walls and towers are Byzantine.
The tower north of the harbor entrance is curved to ease passage into the harbor. Remains of sizable buildings northeast and ease of the harbor and a slipway, now under water at the harbor’s northeast edge, indicate that Jezirat Faraun was at one time a busy port. Remains of two “dolphins,” building stones used as offshore piers, lie submerged just outside the harbor. A boat coming from the open sea could make fast on one of the “dolphins” before being maneuvered into the harbor. Goods unloaded on the island were later ferried to two jetties, or landing stages, on the mainland opposite the harbor entrance (see photos and plan) and then transferred to caravans for the journey north to Israel and Phoenicia.