Genesis 47:11

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

Joseph placed ... in the best of the land - best pasture land in lower Egypt. Goshen, 'the land of verdure,' lay along the Pelusaic or eastern branch of the Nile, and was the part of Egypt nearest to Palestine. It included a part of the district (nome) of Heliopolis, or "On," and on the east stretched out a considerable length into the desert. The ground included within these boundaries was a rich and fertile extent of natural meadow, and admirably adapted for purposes of the Hebrew shepherds (cf. Genesis 49:24; Psalms 78:72; Psalms 34:10). 'This tract is now comprehended in the modern province esh-Shurkiyeh, which extends from the neighbourhood of Abu Za'bel to the sea, and from the desert to the former Tanaitic Branch of the Nile. That it lay upon the waters of the Nile is apparent from the circumstance that the Israelites practiced irrigation, and lived much on fish; but from the enumeration of articles longed for (Numbers 11:5; Numbers 20:5; Deuteronomy 11:10), it probably extended further west, and more into the Delta than has usually been supposed. There are more flocks and herds here than anywhere else in Egypt' (Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,' vol. 1:, p. 77). This Heliopolitan nome is called (Genesis 47:11) "the land of Rameses-the best of the land." The word Rameses means, in the old Egyptian language, 'son of the sun.' The papyrus Anastasi III recently discovered contains a brilliant description of the fields in this district as of marvelous fertility. 'During the reign of the shepherd kings (says Drew, 'Scripture Lands') a frontier warfare was carried on against them by the allied forces of Thebes and Ethiopia, which resulted in their ultimate expulsion. This circumstance will illustrate the willingness of the reigning monarch to receive Joseph's countrymen as colonists; because so all his military force was available for the warfare he was obliged to carry forward on the south.'