Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/521

 MAXSURAII— DAMIETTA. 428 quantities of this comnKxlity, with the other produce of its gardens and orchards, derives some iiniKjrtanee from its jMsition at the converging point of the throe lines of railway between Alexandria, Cairo, and Zaguzig. Here the river is traversed by a long viofluct. Near the station another " tell " or mound of ruins, situated like the modem touii on the right bunk of the Dumietta branch of the Nile, is all that now remains of the ancient AthribU. Maxsurah — Damietta. Mil 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 Santanhud, the SohentnjtoH 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 Behbeit-el-IIagar. Jlansurah, or the " Victorious," which follows on the right bank, preserves no monuments of the jjast, but is one of the most commercial and industrious cities in Egj'pt, and capital of a province. It was here that the French King Ijouis 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 Ilyksos, who overran Egypt thousands of years ago. The profits of these fisheries are almost entirely forestalled by the sheikhs of ^latarieh, 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 predtniessor Tamiat/tis, which stoo<l on the left bunk quite close to the mouth of the river. Rut immediately after the unsuccessful siege laid to the place by Louis IX., Sultim 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 eui$ily be defended against a hostile fleet. The modem Damietta manufactures various kinds of textile fabrics and does a considerable trade in rice, suit, and fish. Here, also, vessels engaged in the coast- ing trade between Syria, Asia Minor, and the JSgean Sea, come for their supplies of provisions, which they take in exchange for various manufactured goods.* But Arrival* 1,198 ahipa of 83.116 totu. Departurts 1.176 „ 79,996 „ T.tal 2.374 „ l'«8.2ri ,,
 * Movemuut of the Port of Damietta in 1880, aocordio!; to Amici : —