From the Daily News Egypt -Link to article

By AFP
First Published: May 29, 2008

CAIRO: Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the headquarters of a pharaonic army that guarded the strategic eastern border, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Wednesday.

The site, which dates back to the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC), was discovered in the Sinai peninsula at the start of Horus Road, the vital commercial and military road linking Egypt to Asia, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said.

The article is referring to Tjaru fortress (according to other articles covering this topic posted on Andie Byrne’s blog) and the resurfacing of this news is due to some new inscriptions being found at the site, including a rather fine carving of Horus, and some an inscription including royal cartouches by Reuters/Yahoo, which sadly is shown upside down.

It is now believed that a temple complex was also built here, which makes sense if we think back to the fortresses that the Egyptians constructed in Nubia, where several temples dating from the early 18th Dynasty onward were discovered in the fortress of Buhen.

There is no divide or conflict between military activity and religion in the Egyptian world view. Indeed, defending the boundaries of Egypt (as a place filled with ma’at, under Horus) against foreign activity (the forces of chaos/isfet) can clearly be seen as a key aspect of Ancient Egyptian religion, particularly state religion. In this, we may possibly be seeing the first time a nation-state uses religion to both rally the troops, and to justify military action.