Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/515

 But the great entrepôt for the cotton and the cereals of this region of the delta is the populous city of Zagazig, which occupies a central position at the junction of several lines of railway, over against the western outlet of Wady-Tumilât. The population of this place has increased fivefold since the year 1860, thanks chiefly to the development of the cotton plantations.

South of the Zagazig gardens a number of high mounds, collectively known by the name of Tell-el-Bastah, still recall the ancient city of Pabast, the Bubastis of the Greeks, which was the capital of Egypt some twenty-seven or twenty-eight centuries ago; that is to say, during the twenty-second dynasty, when the frequent

wars with Assyria required the centre of gravity of the kingdom to be shifted more towards the east. Broken shafts and sculptured blocks still scattered about attest the former splendour enjoyed by this now ruined city. North-east of it, on the very verge of the wilderness and on the last irrigating canale derived from the Nile, lies the village of Karaim, surrounded by palm-groves which have the reputation of yielding the finest dates in Egypt.

The entrance of the Wady-Tumilât is guarded on the west by the station of Tell-el-Kebir, that is, the "Great Mound," where in the year 1882 the Egyptian forces under Arabi vainly attempted to make a stand against the British expedition advancing from Ismailia, its base on the Suez Canal. The fortifications erected by