Rosetta travel guide

Beautiful houses from the 17th to 19th centuries are a prominent feature of Rosetta, which was the most important Egyptian port and a major centre of trade on the Mediterranean from the Middle Ages into more recent times.

In 1799, the famous “Rosetta Stone” was discovered here – a granite stele with texts incised in three languages, which made a major contribution to deciphering the hieroglyphs. GeneralThe once important port and commerce city of Rosetta lies 65km/40mi east of Alexandriain the Nile delta, 15km/9mi from the place where the Rosetta channel of the Nile flows into the Mediterranean. In ancient times, this was the site of a settlement called Bolbitine. From the 17th to the 19th century, Rosetta experienced a period of economic growth. After the completion of the Mahmudiya Canal, the city rapidly fell into the shadow of Alexandria. Today, Rosetta is still an important commercial centre for rice, the food industry and the textile trade.
To the present day, the city centre has imposing residential structures from the 17th to 19th centuries. These are four- to five-storey buildings with mosaic-like, red-black brickwork into which ancient stone blocks were often worked. The façades are decorated with richly ornamented window lattices (mushrabiye). Particularly beautiful examples are the buildings called El-Fatarifrom 1620, Arab Keli (now a museum) from the 18th century, and El-Amaciali from the early 19th century. Rosetta has more than 120 mosques, most of which differ from other Egyptian mosques in their clear structure and simple décor. The large Saglul Mosque, which combines two older adjacent mosques in a surprisingly harmonious manner, stands at the end of the main road which leads south from the railway station and provides access to the covered bazaars. Its more than 300 columns come from various older buildings and were therefore of differing heights. The differences were compensated by removing the capitals or doubling them. The extensive fortifications in the north and west of the city were built from the 16th century. They include the earlier Fort St Julien (Fort Qaitbey) (which lies about 5km/3mi north of the city and is accessible by boat. In 1799, the famous “Rosetta Stone” was discovered here during restoration work. Its three-language inscription enabled the scholar Champollion to decipher hieroglyphics.

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