Northern coast of Egypt

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Egypt

Northern coast of Egypt

Post by DJKeefy »

The Northern coast of Egypt extends for about 1050 km (652 miles) from Rafa'h to the east, on the Egyptian-Palestinian border, to Sallum in the west, on the Egyptian-Libyan border. The coastline borders both the Arabian desert and the Sahara, including the Suez Canal and the Nile delta as the northern gateway to Africa.

Before the advent of commercial airliners flying directly through Cairo, the Nile and the Gulf of Suez were the main transportation areas for travel further into the African continent, from Europe and Asia. The city of Alexandria, in the center of the coastline, as chosen by Alexander the Great, has been the hub of sea travel between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile delta for over 2300 years.


The main cities on the north Egyptian coast (west to east) are:

Sallum - border town at Libyan border;
Sidi Barrani - Sahara entry point;
Marsa Matruh - main west coast seaport;
Sidi Abdel Rahman - seaport town;
El Alamein - southern most coastal town;
Alexandria - main seaport, center of coastline;
Rosetta - western Nile delta (aka Rashid);
Damietta - eastern Nile delta;
Port Said - entrance to Suez Canal;
Arish - east seaport on Aris river.


Sallum

Sallum or As Sallum (Arabic: ÇáÓáæã (Alternative)ý) is a village in Egypt, near the Mediterranean Sea, east of the border with Libya, and around 145 km (91 miles) from Tobruk.

Sallum is mainly a Bedouin community. It has little if any tourist activity or organized historical curiosities. It is a regional trading center.

Sallum was the ancient Roman port of Baranis, and there are some Roman wells still remaining in the area. It rests on the Egyptian North Coast, but the location along the border with Libya, about as far west as one may travel in Egypt, means that it is out of the way of most everything, with few attractions other than a World War II Commonwealth war cemetery. There is a local post office and a National Bank of Egypt branch.

History
Sallum is mentioned, in historical terms, to denote the extent of the initial Italian invasion into Egypt, from Libya, and the Italian Tenth Army built a series of forts in the vicinity of Sallum and Sidi Barrani.

Sallum was a destination point during the total solar eclipse on March 29, 2006, as expeditions traveled to the best observation point.


Sidi Barrani

Sidi Barrani (Arabic: ÓíÏí ÈÑøÇäíý) is a village in Egypt, near the Mediterranean Sea, about 95 km (59 miles) east of the border with Libya, and around 240 km (149 miles) from Tobruk.

Sidi Barrani is mainly a Bedouin community, with food and gasoline supplies, but it has little if any tourist activity or organized historical curiosities. It has only one small hotel.

History
Sidi Barrani is often used, in historical writing, to mark the extent of the initial Italian invasion into Egypt, from Libya. The Italian Tenth Army built a series of forts in the vicinity.

American Field Service volunteers (providing ambulance services), serving with the 8th Army, were based in the area, in June 1942, 30 miles east of Sidi Barrani.

Sidi Barrani was a destination point during the total solar eclipse on October 3, 2005, as expeditions traveled to the best observation point, Zawiet Mahtallah, 27 km (16.8 miles) east of Sidi Barrani.


Mersa Matruh

Mersa Matruh (Arabic ãÑÓì ãØÑæÍ [Marsā Maṭrūḥ]) (known in Ptolemaic and Byzantine times as Paraitonion (Παραιτόνιον) and in Roman times as Paraetonium) is a seaport in Egypt. It stands some 240 km (149 miles) west of Alexandria, along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, on the main highway from the Delta to the Libyan border. Another highway leads south from the town, headed for the Western Desert and the oases of Siwa and Bahariya.

Marsa Matruh's main function nowadays is to serve as a getaway resort for Cairenes eager to flee the capital in the sweltering summer months. It is served by Marsa Matruh Airport.

History
During World War II, the British Army's Baggush Box was located to the east. During this period, Marsa Matruh was the terminus for a single-track railway which passed through El Alamein.


Sidi Abdel Rahman

Sidi Abdel Rahman (Arabic: ÓíÏí ÚÈÏÇáÑÍãäý) is a small settlement in Egypt. Sidi Abdel Rahman is most famous by its beach located 132 km west of Alexandria and some 30 km west of Al Alamin. This desert and beach area is located some 190km East of Mersa Matruh and is often a resting point on trips from Alexandria to the Siwa Oasis and to Matruh. The Gulf of Sid Abdel Rahman on the Mediterranean including the Al Alamin Hotel were recently auctioned off by the Egyptian Tourist Authority and a joint venture of a Dubai based developer with an Egyptian partner won the right to develop the area. A new year round city will be developed in the Gulf of Sidi Abdel Rahman with costs in the region of $10 Billion or some LE 60 Billion. The Al Alamin is the site of the famous battles of the WWII. Mausoleums and cemeteries for the Allies, the Germans and the Italians are close by to Sidi Abdel Rahman and Al Alamin. There is a big resort being constructed currently called Marassi Resort.


El Alamein

El Alamein (or Al Alamayn) (Arabic: ÇáÚáãíäý) is a town in northern Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea coast in Matruh Governorate. It is 106 kilometres (66 mi) west of Alexandria and 240 kilometres (149 mi) northwest of Cairo. The population was about 7,397 in 2007.[1]

Until recently, it has mainly been a port facility for shipping oil, but like the whole north coast of Egypt is now developing as a luxury resort.

El Alamein has a war museum with collectibles from "the civil war" and other North African battles. Visitors can also go to the Italian and German Military Cemetery on Tel el-Eisa Hill just outside the town. The German cemetery is an ossuary with the remains of 4,200 German soldiers, built in the style of a medieval fortress. The Italian cemetery is a mausoleum containing many galleries of tombs. Many tombs bear the soldier's name; many are simply marked "IGNOTO", unknown.

There is also a Commonwealth war cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries who fought on the British side. This has monuments commemorating Greek, New Zealand, Australian and South African forces. The Commonwealth cemetery, as is common at many such cemeteries in the world, consists of parallel rows of gravestones, each one bearing an engraving of the deceased soldier's unit emblem, his name and an epitaph from his family.


History
Two important World War II battles were fought in the area:

At the First Battle of El Alamein (July 1, – July 27, 1942) the advance of Axis troops on Alexandria was blunted by the Allies, when the German Panzers tried to outflank the allied position.

At the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 23 – November 4, 1942) Allied forces broke the Axis line and forced them all the way back to Tunisia. Winston Churchill said of this victory: "This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." He also wrote "Before Alamein, we had no victory and after it we had no defeats".


Alexandria

Alexandria (Arabic: ÇáÅÓßäÏÑíÉ al-Iskandariyya; Coptic: Rakotə; Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια; Egyptian Arabic: ÇÓßäÏÑíå Eskendereyya), with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort.

Alexandria extends about 32 km (20 miles) along the coast of the Mediterranean sea in north-central Egypt. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria), and is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez, another city in Egypt. Alexandria was also an important trading post between Europe and Asia, because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the most famous cities in the world. It was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 334 BC by Alexander the Great. It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo).

Alexandria was known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world) and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa (one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages). Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhakotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

(More information to come about Alexandria in a seperate topic)


Rosetta

Rosetta (Arabic: ÑÔíÏý Rashid) is a port city on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt. It is located 65 km (40 miles) east of Alexandria, at 31°24′N 30°25′E / 31.4°N 30.417°E / 31.4; 30.417, in al-Buhayrah governorate. It was founded around AD 800.

With the decline of Alexandria following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in the 16th century, Rashid boomed, only to wane in importance after Alexandria's revival. During the 19th century it was a popular British tourist destination, known for its charming Ottoman mansions, citrus groves and cleanliness.

The town of Rashid came to be known in the West as Rosetta, the name by which it was referred to by the French during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt. It is famous as the site where the Rosetta Stone was found by French soldiers in 1799.

History
It is the modern representative of the ancient Bolbitine, which lay a little farther north. In the Middle Ages Rosetta was a place of considerable commercial importance, and it continued to flourish until the construction of the Mahmudiyeh Canal and the improvement of the harbour at Alexandria diverted most of its trade to the latter city.

It also witnessed the defeat of the 1807 British Fraser campaign trying to occupy Egypt after the French army left Egypt.


Damietta

Damietta, Damiata, or Domyat (Arabic: ÏãíÇØý) is a port and the capital of the governorate of Domyat, Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Cairo.

History
In Ancient Egypt, the city was known as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period after the construction of Alexandria.

The Abbasids use Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and China.[1]

Damietta was important in the 12th and 13th centuries during the time of the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with support from the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it was defeated by Saladin.

During preparations for the Fifth Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack. Control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the crusaders believed they would be able to conquer Egypt. From Egypt they could then attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler. In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defenses.

Damietta was also the object of the Seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France. His fleet arrived there in 1249 and quickly captured the fort, though he refused to hand it over to the nominal king of Jerusalem, to whom it had been promised during the Fifth Crusade. However, Louis too was eventually captured and defeated and was forced to give up the city.

Because of its importance to the Crusaders, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars destroyed the city and rebuilt it with stronger fortifications a few kilometres from the river.


Port Said

Port Said (Arabic ÈæÑÓÚíÏ transliterated Būr Saʻīd) is a northeastern Egyptian city near the Suez Canal.

The economic base of Port Said is fishing and industries, like chemicals, processed food, and cigarettes. Port Said is also an important harbour both for exports of Egyptian products like cotton and rice, but also a fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. Port Said also thrives on being a duty-free port, as well as a summer resort for Egyptians.

There are numerous old houses with grand balconies on all floors, giving the city a distinctive look. Port Said's twin city is Port Fouad, which lies on the eastern side of the canal. The two cities coexist, to the extent that there hardly is any town centre in Port Fouad. The cities are connected by free ferries running all through the day, and together they form a metropolitan area.

The diocese of Port-Said for the Coptic Orthodox Church was founded in 1976 by his grace Bishop Tadros. In 1993, the late subdeacon Nosshy Attia Anbary wrote the history of the diocese in Arabic.

In addition to its port, the city is served by Port Said Airport.

Port Said Port
The port is bordered, seaward, by an imaginary line from the western breakwater boundary till the eastern breakwater end. And from the Suez Canal area, it is bordered by an imaginary line extending transversely from the southern bank of the Canal connected to Manzala Lake, and the railways arcade livestock.

Navigation Channels

Main Channel
Length: 8 km (5 mi)
Depth: 13.72 m (45.01 ft)

East Verge Channel
Length: 19.5 km (12 mi)
Depth: 18.29 m (60.01 ft)

Approach Area
Two breakwaters protect the port entrance channel: the western breakwater is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long, and the eastern breakwater is approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km).

Dwelling Area
The Suez Canal dwelling area is situated between latitudes 31° 21' N and 31° 25' N and longitudes 32° 16.2°' E and 32° 20.6' E. where vessels awaiting to accede Port Said port stay whether to join the North convoy to transit the Suez Canal to carry out stevedoring operations or to be supplied with provisions and bunkers. The dwelling area is divided into two sections:

The Northern Area is allocated for vessels with deep drafts.

The Southern Area is for all vessel types.


Arish

Arish or el-Arīsh (Arabic: ÇáÚÑíÔý) is the capital and largest city (with 114,900 inhabitants as of 2002[update]) of the Egyptian governorate of Shamal Sina', lying on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai peninsula, 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of Cairo. Al `Arīsh is distinguished by its clear blue water, widespread fruitful palmy wood on its coast, and its soft white sand. It has a yacht marina, and many luxury hotels.

The city also has some of the faculties of Suez Canal University.

El Arish is by a big wadi called the Wadi el Arish, which receives flash flood water from much of north and central Sinai.

History
The city grew around a Bedouin settlement near the ancient Ptolemaic Dynasty outpost of Rhinocolura. Located halfway between Israel and Egypt, El Arish should be of major archaeological interest - but, surprisingly, no major archaeological project has ever been carried out in it or in its vicinity. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims misidentified the site as the Sukkot of the Bible. Arīsh means "palm huts" in Arabic corresponding to the Hebrew Sukkot.

New fortifications were constructed at the original site by the Ottoman Empire in 1560. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French laid siege to the fort, which fell after 11 days on February 19, 1799. The fort was destroyed by British bombers during World War I.

In 1958 December 8 an air battle happened between Egyptian and Israeli air forces over Al Ariesh [1].

El Arish was under military occupation by the state of Israel from 1967 to 1979 and briefly in 1956. It was returned to Egypt in 1979 after the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. An increasingly popular tourist destination, El Arish is situated at 31°07′N 33°48′E / 31.117°N 33.8°E / 31.117; 33.8.

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