Rosetta

Rashid, which Europeans called Rosetta, was the main Egyptian port on the Mediterranean through the Ottoman centuries, and it grew rich enough to fill itself with tall merchant houses built of small red and black bricks laid in patterns, with projecting mashrabiya windows and painted ceilings. When Alexandria was revived in the nineteenth century the trade left, and Rosetta simply stopped, which is why around twenty of those houses still stand, several restored and open as museums. Its other claim is the stone found here in 1799 by French soldiers rebuilding a fort, whose three scripts gave Champollion the key to hieroglyphs; the original is in London, and a replica stands in the town. A mosque with hundreds of reused ancient columns is nearby.

History

Rosetta stands near the site of ancient Bolbitine, which gave its name to the Bolbitine mouth of the Nile, a channel Herodotus said had been dug rather than formed naturally, and which seems to have been known in antiquity for making chariots. The town was an Umayyad stronghold when it was sacked in 749 during the Bashmuric revolt, and in the 850s the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered a fort built on the site of Bolbitine, around which the medieval town grew; under the Fatimids, after 969, it shared in the foreign trade that was no longer confined to Alexandria. Louis IX of France briefly occupied the town in 1249, and the crusaders called it Rexi. Rosetta boomed as Alexandria declined after the Ottoman conquest of 1517, and lost importance again with Alexandria's revival; in the 19th century it was a popular destination for British travellers, known for its Ottoman mansions and citrus groves. Its Arabic name, Rashid, most likely means "guide", Rosetta being the form used by the French in Napoleon's time, and in 1799 French soldiers found the Rosetta Stone at nearby Fort Julien (Wikipedia, Rosetta).

Highlights

• Ottoman merchant houses - patterned brick, mashrabiya and painted ceilings.
• The fort where the stone was found - Qaitbay's fort at the river mouth.
• Al-Mahali mosque - a prayer hall on hundreds of reused ancient columns.
• The Nile mouth - the western branch meeting the Mediterranean.

When to go

October to April. Half a day including the drive from Alexandria. Weekday mornings for open houses, since keyholders keep loose hours. The river mouth is best in the late afternoon.

Practical notes

Only some of the houses are open on any given day and finding keyholders takes patience. The original Rosetta Stone is not here and never will be. The modern town around the old houses is drab and traffic-clogged. There is little in the way of visitor facilities.

Nearby

Alexandria is west along the coast; Lake Burullus lies east along the Delta shore.

Key facts