Damietta

Damietta (Arabic: دمياط‎ Dumyāṭ), cried Damiata or Domyat an aa, is a port an the caipital o the Damietta Govrenorate in Egyp. It is locatit at the intersection atween the Mediterranean Sea an the Nile, aboot 200 kilometres (120 mi) north o Cairo.

Mercat street in Damietta

Damietta Corniche

History

In Auncient Egyp, the ceety wis kent as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period efter the construction o Alexandria.

The Abbasids uised Alexandria, Damietta, Aden an Siraf as entry ports tae Indie an the Tang Dynasty o Cheenae. Damietta wis an important naval base durin the Abbasid, Tulunid an Fatimid periods. This led tae several attacks bi the Byzantine Empire, maist notably the sack an destruction o the ceety in Mey 853.

Damietta wis again important in the 12t an 13t centuries durin the time o the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet frae the Kinrick o Jerusalem, wi support frae the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it wis defeatit bi Saladin.

Durin preparations for the Fift Crusade in 1217, it wis decidit that Damietta shoud be the focus o attack. Control o Damietta meant control o the Nile, an frae thare the crusaders believed thay wad be able tae conquer Egyp. Frae Egyp thay coud then attack Palestine an recaptur Jerusalem. When the port wis besieged an occupee'd bi Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis o Assisi arrived tae peaceably negotiate wi the Muslim ruler. In October 1218 reinforcements arrived includin the Legate Pelagius wi the Inglis earls Ranulf o Chester, Saer o Winchester an William Aubigny o Arundel thegither wi ane Odonel Aubigny, Robert Fitzwalter, John Lacy o Chester, William Harcourt an Oliver the illegitimate son o Keeng John. In 1221 the Crusaders attemptit tae mairch tae Cairo, but wur destroyed bi the combination o natur an Muslim defenses.

Damietta wis forby the object o the Seivent Crusade, led bi Louis IX o Fraunce. His fleet arrived thare in 1249 an quickly captured the fort, tho he refused tae haund it ower tae the nominal keeng o Jerusalem, tae whom it haed been promised durin the Fift Crusade. Housomeivver, Louis too wis eventually captured an defeatit an wis forced tae gie up the ceety.

Acause o its importance tae the Crusaders, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars destroyed the ceety an rebuilt it wi stranger fortifications a few kilometres frae the river.

Damietta postal code (zip)

• kornish elnile 34511
• el Aser 34512
• harit elperka 34513

Monuments

• Amr Ibn Al-a'as Mosque (Al-Fateh) the 2nt mosque tae be biggit in Egyp an Africae bi the Arabs efter enterin Egyp. It haes been convertit tae a kirk twice durin occupation bi the crusaders an Louis IX o Fraunce's son Jean Tristan o Fraunce wis baptised bi legate o the Pape in this Mosque.
• Al-Matbuly Mosque datin tae Mamluk era.
• Al-Maainy Mosque datin tae Al-Naser Mohammed Ibn Qalawon regin.
• Al-Bahr Mosque datin tae Ottmon rule era.
• Al—Hadidy Mosque in Faraskour 200 year auld.
• Tabiet Ahmed Urabi, ruins o Damietta Fort at Ezbet El-Borg.
• Al-Radwaniya Mosque datin tae Mamluk era.
• The Old Brig " Elkobri Elqadeem" datin tae early 1900s.
• Souk Al-Hesba, the auld doun toun, datin tae Abbasi rule era.

Present-day

The day, thare is a canal connectin it tae the Nile, which haes made it an important port ance again. The modren ceety haes a population o aboot 1,093,580 (2006). It contains the SEGAS LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) plant, which will ultimately hae a capacity o 9.6 million ton/year throu twa trains. The plant is awned bi Segas, a joint ventur o the Spainyie utility Unión Fenosa (40%), Italian ile company Eni (40%) an the Egyptian companies EGAS an EGPC (10% each).The plant is unuisual syne it is no supplee'd frae a dedicatit field, but is supplee'd wi gas frae the Egyptian grid. EMethanex, the Egyptian diveesion o Methanex Corporation a Canadian awned company, is currently biggin a 3600 MTPD methanol plant. Construction is scheduled tae be finished in mid 2010.

Economic activity

• White Dammiat Cheese (Domiati) an ither dairy products that spread in Egyp, Greece, Cyprus, Sudan an Turkey.
• Furniture & wid wirk antiques
• Pattisiare an Egyptian desserts.
• Weavin an claes
• Containers transport throu the new port
• Fishin

Damietta in cultur

A 1911 postcard, titled The City of Damietta on the Nile

• A frigate o the Egyptian Navy bought frae US Navy USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089) wis renamed the Damyat efter Damietta.
• Amietophrynus kassasii (Baha El Din, 1993) "Damietta Toad" ane o the genus Amietophrynus.
• It wis visitit bi LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin in 1929.
• Seat o the Coptic Orthodox Metropolis o Damietta, Kafr-el-Sheikh, an Bararye, unner jurisdiction o H.E. Metropolitan Bishoy.
• The Greek Orthodox bishop wis based in Damietta in the kirk o Agios Nikolaos.

See an aa

• Damiata (titular see)
• Damietta Port
• Sidhom Bishay

References

• J. Tolan, St. Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter. Oxford: Oxford Varsity Press, 2009. [beuk aboot Francis o Assisi's mission tae the Egyptian Sultan Al-Kamil at Damietta in 1219]

Freemit airtins

• Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. "Geographical information on Dumyat, Egypt". Retrieved 22 Mairch 2008.