Damiette
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دمياط Dumyāt Damiette |
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| Coordinates | 31 ° 25 ′ N , 31 ° 49 ′ E | ||
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| Country | Egypt | ||
| Dumyat | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | EG-DT | ||
| height | 5 m | ||
| Residents | 337,303 (2012) | ||
| Metropolitan area | 1,093,580 (2006) | ||
Corniche on the arm of the Nile and El-Bahr Mosque
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Damiette ( Arabic دمياط Dumyāt , DMG Dumyāṭ ; Latin Damietta ) is a port city and capital of the Egyptian governorate of the same name, Damiette, on the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Delta , about 200 kilometers north of Cairo . The city has 282,879 inhabitants (2017).
history
In ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt the city was called Tamiat. It lost its importance in the Hellenic period (Greek name Tamiathis , Ταμίαθις) due to the construction of Alexandria .
Time of the crusades
Damiette was an important city at the time of the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1169 a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem attacked the port with the support of the Byzantine Empire , but was defeated by Saladin .
Damiette was the main target of the Fifth Crusade, which began in 1217 (hence the "Crusade of Damiette"). The ownership of the city allowed control of the only navigable arm of the Nile through the chain tower there, and from there the Crusaders wanted to conquer Egypt, the heartland of the Muslim Ayyubids . The attack on Palestine was to be carried on from Egypt in order to recapture Jerusalem , which the Ayyubids would have found difficult to defend without support from Egypt. Damiette was conquered and occupied in November 1219 after a 19-month siege. In 1221, however, the crusaders were defeated on the way to Cairo and withdrew from Damiette without a fight.
Damiette was also the target of the French King Louis IX. guided Sixth Crusade . His fleet arrived there in 1249 and captured the fortress by surprise . Also on the way to Cairo, the crusaders were defeated in 1250. Ludwig was taken prisoner and the crusaders returned Damiette, among others, to get their king free. The Mamluk Sultan Baibars destroyed the city because of its importance for the crusaders and rebuilt it a few kilometers away from the Nile with stronger fortifications.
Modern
Today Dumyat is connected to the Nile ( Damiette arm of the Nile Delta ) by a canal , so that the importance of the port has increased again. The metropolitan area of the modern city has a population of approximately one million.
Dumyat is particularly important in today's Egypt because of its small furniture workshops. Around 80% of all Egyptian furniture is made here. However, the manufacturing companies are predominantly small workshops. From a global economic perspective, the importance is again minor.
Israel and Egypt plan to liquefy natural gas produced off the Israeli coast in Damiette and to deliver it to Europe on special ships.
Titular archbishopric
Damiette is the namesake of the Roman Catholic titular diocese of Tamiathis and the Melkite-Catholic titular archbishopric Damiata dei Greco-Melkiti to this day as the perished diocese .
sons and daughters of the town
- Johann Tristan (* 1250; † 1270), French prince
- Zahi Hawass (* 1947), Egyptian archaeologist
- Essam El-Hadary (* 1973), Egyptian soccer player
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: Suddenly a gas exporter . On: faz.net from May 20, 2014; Retrieved May 20, 2014.