20 Route 2. ROSETTA.
to traverse the narrow neck of land between the Lake of Abukir
and Lake Edku beyond it, on the right, and the Mediterranean on
the left. — 20'/2 M. El-Ma'adlyeh, near the former Canopic mouth
of the Nile. — 28!/2 M. Edku, a village situated on a sand-hill to
the right. — From (36 M.) Bussili a branch-line runs to (8 M., in
!/2 hr.) Etpneh, a village on the Rosetta arm of the Nile.
441/? M. Rosetta (Hotel du Nil, kept hy Christo), Arabic Reshid
(a Coptic name), with 14,300 inhab., almost exclusively natives,
lies at the mouth of the Rosetta arm of the Nile (far1 el-gharbi), the
ancient Bolbitinic arm (p. lii). During the middle ages and in
more recent times its commercial prosperity was considerable, until
the construction of the Mahmudiyeh Canal (pp. 11, 18) diverted its
trade to Alexandria. The streets contain many small but substantial
houses in a peculiar, half-European style, with projecting stories
and windows towards the outside. The many gardens yield ex¬
cellent fruit. Numerous columns from edifices of the heathen
and Christian periods, some of them of granite and some of marble,
are seen lying in various open spaces, particularly in one of con¬
siderable size near the river, and a number of others are built into
the houses. The spacious Mosque of Sakhlun is also embellished
with many ancient columns. The hill of Abu Mandur, to the S. of
the town, which commands a fine view, is supposed by some topo¬
graphers to have been the site of the ancient Bolbitine, but it is
more likely that this lay to the N. of Rosetta. — The fortifications
to the N. of the town are not shown except by permission of the
commandant.
In 1799 M. Bouchard, a French captain of engineers, discovered in Fort
St. Julien the celebrated Rosetta Stone (p. civ), which afforded European
scholars a key to the language and writing ofthe ancient Egyptians, which
had heen lost for nearly 14 centuries.
From Rosetta to Damietla via, the Lake of Burlus, see p. 161; via the
Nile to 'Aif and Kafr ez-Zaiydt, see p. 22.
3. From Alexandria to Cairo.
129 M. Railway (comp. p. xvii). Express train in 3'/3-33/4 hrs., fares
£E 1. 5 pias. or 52pias.; ordinary train in 7 hrs., fares 88, 44 pias.; return-
tickets, available for a week, '£e 1. 32 pias. or 66 pias. — Travellers should
engage the commissionnaire of the hotel or an agent of Cook or Gaze (p. 6j
to assist in booking their luggage. — The Alexandria and Cairo line, the
first railway constructed in the East, was made under Sarid Pasha in 1855.
The railway to Cairo traverses gardens towards the N.E., and beyond
Hadra and Sldi Gdber (first halt of the express) diverges to the
right from the line to Rosetta (see above). To the left is the ruin of
the Kasr el-Kayasereh (p. 19). It then crosses the Mahmudiyeh
Canal (p. 11) and skirts its S. bank. Three unimportant stations
are passed. To the right lies Lake Mareotis (Beheret Maryut), the
water of which washes the railway-embankment at places during
the period of the inundation.
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