Damietta

Damietta (Arab. Dimyat), a town of Lower Egypt, situated on the right bank of the chief eastern mouth of the Nile, about 8 miles from its mouth in the Mediterranean. It is irregularly but well built, and has some handsome mosques and marble baths, and of course several bazaars. Its commerce has been much injured by the prosperity of Alexandria, but it still carries on a considerable trade in exporting rice, fish (from Lake Menzala), coffee, and dates; and imports charcoal, soap, and manufactured goods. It is the terminus of a branch-railway from Cairo. The cambic (kasab) known as dimity received its name from Damietta, where it was first manufactured, but it is so no longer (Lane-Poole, Art of the Saracens), and the leather-work for which it was famous has also declined. A bar at the mouth of the river prevents vessels of more than fifty or sixty tons burden from ascending to the city. Pop. about 30,000. The existing town was erected after 1251, but, prior to that, a city of the same name (more anciently Tamiáthis) stood more to the south. It was strongly fortified by the Saracens, and formed on that side the bulwark of Egypt against the early crusaders, who, however, succeeded in capturing it more than once. It was razed, and rebuilt farther inland on the site it now occupies, by the Mamluk sultan Beybars.