Damanhūr

Damanhur stands in the western Nile Delta, among canals and cultivated fields between the Rosetta branch and Alexandria. Its name recalls the ancient Egyptian god Horus, and the settlement served as the centre of a district in Lower Egypt. Under the Mamluks it grew into an important administrative town and served as a seat of the viceroy of Lower Egypt.

In 1798 a French army occupied Egypt, meeting resistance in Cairo and the Delta. The following year Damanhur became a centre of revolt against the occupation, including a movement led by a man claiming to be the Mahdi. French forces suppressed the rising, but the episode showed that their control over the countryside was contested as well as their hold on the capital.