DAMANAHUE—KAFE-DWAE—CANOPIS— ABUKIR. 427 



by canals derived from the main stream. Here the plains are irrigated by the 

 Mariut, Abu-Dibat, Damanahur, and Metmudieh Canals, with innumerable smaller 

 channels, all of which discharge their waters into Lakes Mariut and Edku. 



Damanahur — Kafr-Dwar. 



Damanahur, consisting of a group of numerous hamlets, is the capital of this region 

 of arable lands, where the tall chimneys of the cotton-cleansing factories almost out- 

 number the minarets of the mosques. Between Damanahur and Alexandria this 

 part of the delta is connected with the seaboard by a narrow isthmus, where road, 

 railway, and canal are all alike protected by embankments against the waters of 

 liakes Abukir and Mariut. This strip of land is one of " the gates of Egypt." 

 Accordingly during the late military insurrection Arabi Pasha caused the approaches 

 from this direction to be blocked from bank to bank by the Kafr-Dwar embank- 

 ments. Instead of forcing these lines the English General Wolseley took them in 

 flank and rear by suddenly embarking his forces and re-landing them at Ismailia 

 on the Suez Canal, whence he advanced into the heart of Egypt by the opposite gate 

 of the "Wady-Tumilât. The success of this manœuvre was complete. The formid- 

 able Kafr-Dwar lines became useless, and Arabi was compelled hastily to withdraw 

 his army to defend the approaches from the Suez Canal, this movement being 

 followed by his crushing defeat at Tell-el-Kebir. 



Canopis — Abukir. 



North of the Kafr-Dwar isthmus Rosetta is connected with the peninsula of 

 Alexandria by another belt of narrow land, which is also utilised by a line of rail- 

 way, and which passes by the little dune-encircled town of Edku, or Edko. At the 

 outlet of Lake Abukir the Maadieh, that is to say, the ford or passage, indicates 

 the course of the ancient Canopic branch of the Nile, the most westerly of all the 

 seven fluvial ramifications. Canopis, whence this branch took its name, has left 

 only some doubtful remains on a spot frequently washed by the surrounding waters. 

 Throughout the whole of the maritime tract adjacent to the Maadieh ford, the 

 sands have swallowed up the sites of ancient structures, which have also served to 

 supply materials for building the neighbouring villages of Mandarah, Abukir, and 

 others. 



Abukir, situated on the shore of the bay to which it gives its name, probably 

 on the very spot formerly occupied by the town of Zephyrion and the temple of 

 Arsinoë Aphrodite, is a small but busy seaport, far better known, however, for its 

 historic associations than for its local trade. It was in the Abukir waters that in 

 the year 1798 Nelson destroyed the French fleet, thereby cutting off all communi- 

 cation between the conquerors of Egypt and the mother country. And although 

 next year Bonaparte was still strong enough to annihilate a Turkish army which 



