Damietta Mouth

The Damietta mouth is the eastern outlet of the Nile into the Mediterranean. Medieval sailors faced shifting shallows at the river’s entrance and sometimes used the calmer mouths of Lake Tinnis, now called Lake Manzala, to reach the delta. In 1261 the Mamluk sultan Baybars ordered stones placed in the Damietta branch, narrowing the channel against seagoing ships after the city had twice been attacked by crusaders.