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.
(There’s no direct transport from Cairo. The easiest way to arrive by public transport is to travel via Damanhur, where you can catch a) service taxi to Rosetta (1 hr, E£2.50).
Rosetta (Rashid), formerly known as ‘the city of a million palms and dates’, used to be the principal port in Egypt. Since ancient times its fortunes have been linked with the ebb and flow of those of its neighbour Alexandria, 64 km to the west. When one waxed, the other would wane. Mohammed Ali’s Mahmudiya Canal project linking the Nile to Alexandria marked the end of Rosetta’s significance as a port. And while Alexandria is now Egypt’s second city, Rosetta is little more than a fishing village. However, its location on the brink of the Nile estuary is an especially scenic one and it’s possible to hire bicycles to explore the outlying countryside (and take them across the river on the ferry to the rowdy villages on the east bank). There is still a medieval feel to the unpaved narrow winding streets, with ahwas on every corner and masses of horse-drawn carriages ferrying vegetables to market, while in terms of the number of Islamic monuments in town Rosetta is second only to Cairo. For most people, however, the town is synonymous with the 1799 discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the key to our understanding of hieroglyphics and, consequently, much of what we know of Egypt’s ancient civilization. The stone is inscribed, in Greek, hieroglyphics and demotic Egyptian with a proclamation by Ptolemy V Epiphanes. Today it rests in the British Museum of London.
Of the 10 Ottoman mosques, a couple are worth a visit for their coloured tilework. The huge Zaghloul Mosque, around 1600, a block north of the main road to Alexandria, is a double mosque. The brighter and smarter half to the west is noted for its arched courtyard while the other half, with over 300 columns, sadly suffers from partial submersion. The Mohammed Al-Abassi Mosque (1809) standing to the south of the town by the Nile, has a distinctive minaret. A lively market is held in the main street to the north of the town towards the station.
The 18th-century mosque of Abu Mandur, 5 km upstream, is accessed by boat taxi or felucca (E£30).
