Abstract
Egypt was a part of the Roman and later Byzantine Empire longer than six hundred years. The military present in the province was always strong.
In the beginning there were three legions and multiple auxiliary units. Even though the size of army declined during the late antiquity, the Roman soldiers were a sizable part of the population.
The Roman soldier across the whole Empire were accommodate in the forts and fortresses. Egypt was not an exception.
There are many buildings in Egypt which were identified as Roman forts. Some of them are clearly following the architectural rules of Roman fortifications.
However there are other buildings, which are in the literature described as Roman forts, even through their architectural form is different. Are those building really Roman forts? Are there any proofs that they were used by Roman Army? Or were they simply misinterpreted? In this paper I will try to answer those questions.
The main focus of the paper is on the Roman fortresses in the Western desert, which are occasionally called fortified temples.