426 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



82 feet high and 53 feet thick. The holy lake which formerly existed here is now 

 a mere swamp. 



Below JDessuk — where the river is spanned by an iron bridge, and whose fairs 

 are only less frequented than those of Tantah — the pleasant town of Fua/}, or 

 "Madder," occupies a position on the right bank, opposite the junction of the 

 large navigable Mahmudieh Canal, which affords direct communication with Alex- 

 andria, Fuah, still noted for its numerous minarets, was the rival of Cairo in the 

 fourteenth century ; but it no longer cultivates the valuable plant from which it 

 takes its name, and its industries are reduced to the manufacture of tarbushes. 



ROSETTA. 



At present Fuah has been eclipsed even by Reshid, or Rosetta, capital of the 

 province, which lies on the left bank of the river about nine miles above its mouth. 

 Founded by the Arabs in the ninth century, Reshid, like Fuah, had its period of 

 prosperity. During the eighteenth century its port was the most frequented in 

 Egypt, and vessels engaged in the coasting trade called here from every part of the 

 Levant for cargoes of rice, which still forms the chief article of exj)ort.* The 

 town is surrounded by delightful gardens, in the midst of which the remains of 

 ancient structures have often been found. Almost every house in Rosetta is 

 embellished with some fragment of columns, marble, porphyry, or granite, taken 

 from older buildings. The famous "Rosetta Stone," which, in the hands of 

 ChampoUion and Young became the point of departure for discoveries of supreme 

 importance in linguistics and history, was discovered in the year 1799 by the 

 engineer Bouchard, of the French expedition under Bonaparte, at some distance 

 to the north of the town, where now stands Fort Julian. This precious tri-lingual 

 inscription, originally composed in honour of " Ptolemy the Immortal, born of the 

 sun," was ceded to the English by capitulation, and deposited in the British 

 Museum. 



When the Nile falls to its lowest level it occasionally happens that the tides 

 ascend the stream to even beyond Rosetta, whose inhabitants are then obliged to 

 use the brackish water found in the depressions. So bad is the supply of this indis- 

 pensable article that in the year 1885 a commission was appointed to examine the 

 question on the spot, and adopt measures for procuring a better supply for the town. 

 Pending the completion of their labours the supply at Edfeh has been stopped, and 

 the water is at present pumped higher up the Nile at Kututbeh, a point beyond 

 the reach of the highest tides from the Mediterranean. 



West of the Rosetta branch the whole north-west corner of the delta is watered 



* Shipping of Rosetta in 1880 according to Amici : — 



Arrivals .... 738 vessels of 20,124 tons. 

 Departures 726 ,, 19,717 ,, 



Total . 1,464 „ 39,841 „ 



