In ancient times, this was a major communication artery for caravan trade between Egypt and points to the east.

[5] Late in the New Kingdom of Egypt period, there was a well fortified site at Tell el-Retabah.

[6] Necho II (610–595 BC) initiated—but may have never completed—the ambitious project of cutting a navigable canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Red Sea.

[11] Modern excavations at Tell el-Maskhuta were carried out by the University of Toronto "Wadi Tumilat Project" under the direction of John S. Holladay Jr.

Tell er-Retabah has been investigated by the archaeologist Hans Goedicke of Johns Hopkins University.

Wadi Tumilat—an arable strip of land serving as the ancient transit route between Egypt and Canaan across the Sinai Peninsula—is also seen by scholars as the biblical "Way of Shur".

[13] Biblical scholar Edouard Naville identified the area of Wadi Tumilat as Sukkot (Tjeku), the 8th Lower Egypt nome.