Walls were built around the existing settlement during the reign of Ramesses II. These were constructed from large mudbricks laid horizontally and vertically in rows. The walls were originally between 4.5 and 5 m wide and at least ten m high. Their positions are still visible today, and in some places the wall is still standing to a significant height.

The junction of the southern and western perimeter walls was explored in the western trench. The width and orientation of the western wall was traced heading north. We also found the south east corner of the perimeter wall just to the south of the wells. The whole eastern perimeter wall was then traced through a series of test trenches. There are traces of larger mudbrick structures at the southeast and northeast corners, which may indicate that the fortress originally had bastions or towers in these corners. It was also established that the fortress has a non-symmetrical outline. There are various factors that may have accounted for this. There may have been existing architectural features that predated the foundation of the Ramesside fortifications and which were taken into account. It is also possible that a watercourse (either a tributary of the Nile or an artificially constructed canal) ran near the site and that the fortress walls were built to run along the edge of this.