Zoan

Zoan (meaning: motion; place of departure) was an ancient and strategically important city of Lower Egypt, called Tanis by the Greeks, on the eastern bank of the Tanitic branch of the Nile. It was founded seven years after Hebron in Canaan (Num. 13:22), suggesting great antiquity. It served as the capital of the Hyksos (Shepherd kings) who ruled Egypt for more than 500 years, and as a frontier town of Goshen, the region where Israel settled.

Psalm 78:12, 43 refers to the "field of Zoan" as the location of the plagues and wonders Moses performed before Pharaoh, which strongly implies that the court of the Exodus Pharaoh was located here. Isaiah's oracles against Egypt mention Zoan's princes and counselors as failing in wisdom (Isa. 19:11–13), and Ezekiel prophesies its judgment alongside Memphis and Thebes (Ezek. 30:14). Extensive mounds of ruins at modern San el-Hagar mark the site of the ancient city.