Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/529

 DAMANAUUR—KiVFR-DWAR—CANOPIS— ABUKIR. 427 by canals derived from the main stream. Hero 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 arc 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-Dicar embank- ments. Instead of forcing these lines the English General Wolseley took them in flank and roar by suddenly embarking his forces and re-landing them at Ismailia on the Suez Canal, whence be advanced into the heart of Egypt by the opposite gate of the AVady-Tumilat. The success of this mana?uvre 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 (ieven fluvial ramifications. Cauopin, whence this branch took its name, has left only some doubtful remains on a 8|X)t 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 Arsinoe 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 Egj-pt and the mother country. And although next year Bonaparte was still strong enough to annihilate a Turkish army which