Zoan
    (Old Egypt. Sant= "stronghold," the modern San). A city on the
    Tanitic branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It was
    built seven years after Hebron in Palestine (Num. 13:22). This
    great and important city was the capital of the Hyksos, or
    Shepherd kings, who ruled Egypt for more than 500 years. It was
    the frontier town of Goshen. Here Pharaoh was holding his court
    at the time of his various interviews with Moses and Aaron. "No
    trace of Zoan exists; Tanis was built over it, and city after
    city has been built over the ruins of that" (Harper, Bible and
    Modern Discovery). Extensive mounds of ruins, the wreck of the
    ancient city, now mark its site (Isa. 19:11, 13; 30:4; Ezek.
    30:14). "The whole constitutes one of the grandest and oldest
    ruins in the world."
      This city was also called "the Field of Zoan" (Ps. 78:12, 43)
    and "the Town of Rameses" (q.v.), because the oppressor rebuilt
    and embellished it, probably by the forced labour of the
    Hebrews, and made it his northern capital.
 Zoan, motion