MANSURAII— DAMIETTA. 428 



quantities of this commodity, with the other produce of its gardens and orchards, 

 derives some importance from its position at the converging point of the three lines 

 of railway between Alexandria, Cairo, and Zagazig. Here the river is traversed by 

 a long viaduct. Near the station another " tell" or mound of ruins, situated like 

 the modern town on the right bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile, is all that 

 now remains of the ancient Athribis. 



Mansurah — Damietta. 



Mit Ghamr and Ziftah, which face each other on both banks of the river, are 

 amongst the most populous cities of the delta. Lower down on the right bank 

 Smnanhiid, the Sehennytos of the Greeks, and the birthplace of Manetho, the his- 

 torian, possesses in the neighbourhood the remains of a temple, the Iseum of 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus, which is now known by the name of Belibéit-el-Hagar. 



Mansurah, or the " Victorious," which follows on the right bank, preserves no 

 monuments of the past, but is one of the most commercial and industrious cities in 

 Egypt, and capital of a province. It was here that the French King Louis IX. fell 

 into the hands of the Mohammedans. Twenty-nine years previously — that is, in 

 1221 — the Crusaders had been defeated in the same place, and it was to commemo- 

 rate these triumphs of the Crescent over the Cross that the " Victorious " was 

 founded. 



At Mansurah the Bahr-es-Sogheir channel branches off from the Nile, and flows 

 to Lake Menzaleh, which it has divided into two basins by a peninsula formed of 

 its alluvial deposits. At the extremity of this low marsh-encircled peninsula stand 

 the two towns of Menzaleh and Matarieh, inhabited by poor communities of fisher- 

 men, whose type, according to Mariette, betrays their lineal descent from the Hyksos, 

 who overran Egypt thousands of years ago. The profits of these fisheries are 

 almost entirely forestalled by the sheikhs of Matarieh, some of whom have become 

 millionaires. 



Damietta, or Dumiat, which gives its name to the east branch of the Nile, still 

 remains the largest city on its banks. However, it does not stand on the same site 

 as its Greek predecessor Tamiathls, which stood on the left bank quite close to the 

 mouth of the river. But immediately after the unsuccessful siege laid to the place 

 by Louis IX., Sultan Bibars caused it to be demolished, and removed the inhabitants 

 some six miles farther up, to a point less accessible to an enemy arriving by sea, 

 and near an abrupt bend in the channel, which might easily be defended against a 

 hostile fleet. 



The modern Damietta manufactures various kinds of textile fabrics and does a 

 considerable trade in rice, salt, and fish. Here, also, vessels engaged in the coast- 

 ing trade between Syria, Asia Minor, and the ^gean Sea, come for their supplies 

 of provisions, which they take in exchange for various manufactured goods.* But 



* Movpment of the Port of Damietta in 1880, according to Amici :— 



Arrivals 1,198 ships of 83,215 tons. 



Departures 1,176 ,, 79,996 „ 



Total . 2,374 ,, 163,211 „ 



