El Mahmoudia ( ar, المحمودية, ) is an Egyptian city on the connection point between the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

and

Mahmoudiyah canal Mahmoudia Canal ( ''Agathos Daimon'' or ''Megas potamos'') is a sub-canal from the Nile River which starts at the Nile-port of Mahmoudia and goes through Alexandria to the Mediterranean Sea. It was built to supply Alexandria with food and fresh ...

. It's a city with a history despite its modernity. It was one of the most important trade ports on the

Nile River The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ri ...

. Trading ships traveling from

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend wikt:downriver, upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. ...

and

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandr ...

passed through its lock and up the

Mahmoudiyah Canal Mahmoudia Canal ( ''Agathos Daimon'' or ''Megas potamos'') is a sub-canal from the Nile River which starts at the Nile-port of Mahmoudia and goes through Alexandria to the Mediterranean Sea. It was built to supply Alexandria with food and fresh ...

. Also trading ships from

carried imported merchandises to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

passing by it.

Special location

The city's special location made it a major trade center in the region. As ships stopped in its natural mooring in the Nile the city had a major activity in markets.

History

Mahmoudiyah was built over Al-Atf () village, which was called Balhib (, ) in

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, and it was a police station belonging to the Rashid Center. It is distinguished by its great mosque that was built during the reign of Muhammad Ali. And it was named after Mahmoudiyah after the name of Sultan Mahmoud Khan in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. Egypt was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, at which time

Muhammad Ali Pasha Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan ( sq, Mehmet Ali Pasha, ar, محمد علي باشا, ; ota, محمد علی پاشا المسعود بن آغا; ; 4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849), was ...

was the governor in Egypt. Its name is associated with the name of a nearby canal, and the city is characterized by a hydraulic system of locks, whose waters patch the boats from the Nile and lower them from the canal to the level of the Nile. The city was surrounded by water, especially in the south. It was branching from the Mahmudiyah Canal, the Rashidiyya Canal, which used to supply Rashid and Idku with water for drinking and irrigation.

Modern

The city of Mahmoudiya was occupied by garrisons, like other strategic cities during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. The British garrison consisted of Indian, Irish,

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n and English soldiers. The city was a strategic site and target for the Germans in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Because the city is located at the mouth of the Mahmoudiyah Canal, which was a waterway to transport goods and the British weaponry from

to enter boats to the Nile. In December 1916, the people were celebrating the wedding of a native couple, and they were marching in a procession, carrying lamps and torches, and they were shouting. The garrison's leader thought it was a rebellion so he ordered the garrison to attack the residents. Fighting between the locals and the garrison took place, which prompted the garrison commander to ask the town’s leaders to negotiate with them. The mayor of the city, Darwish al-Wailili, headed a delegation and met with the garrison commander and asked him to apologize to the people for this attack. In the 1919 revolution, the people of Mahmudiya smashed the Delta Railroad tracks and set the main station on fire. On July 11, 1942 and during

, Mahmoudiyah received thousands of displaced people who were spared the horrors of bombing and bombs from

, Kafr el-Dawar, Khorshid, and al-Baida. It was providing them with shelter and food, even though in World War II, the Al-Atf power station was used to generate electricity for Lower Egypt and the Ahmouda Canal canal, which connects drinking water to Alexandria, Abu Homs, and Kafr al-Dawwar, were strategic targets of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

's planes.

Geography

River and sea-going craft along this coast were sometimes exposed to rough water. As a result boats were often crowded along the canal opening by the intensity of the commercial traffic on the coast by the island of Ful Al-Madina. The city therefore promoted commercial and navigational agencies to govern water traffic especially during the First and Second World Wars. Mahmoudiyah Center was famous for the cultivation of rice and cotton transported through the Mahmoudiyah Canal to be exported to Europe. This city was one of the major commercial cities in Lower Egypt for its unique geographical location. The Nile to its north was as wide as a natural harbor, and to its east is the mouth of the Mahmoudiyah Canal. In addition, there is a pump station to raise the Nile water to the canal that supplies several cities in the West Delta, including Alexandria.

Climate

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as

hot desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About o ...

(BWh), but due to its closeness to the northern coast of Egypt, its temperatures are moderated by the

prevailing winds In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on ...

of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

Notable people

Hassan al-Banna Sheikh Hassan Ahmed Abdel Rahman Muhammed al-Banna ( ar, حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن محمد البنا; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna ( ar, حسن البنا), was an Egyptian schoolteacher and imam, b ...

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Beheira Governorate Populated places on the Nile Port cities and towns in Egypt