Rosetta Mouth

The Rosetta branch carries the western waters of the Nile Delta into the Mediterranean. Near its mouth stands Rashid, known to Europeans as Rosetta, a port linking the river route from Cairo with the sea and nearby Alexandria. Goods from Cairo and Upper Egypt passed through its warehouses for export, while imports arriving at Alexandria also travelled through the town.

During the French expedition to Egypt, soldiers repaired an old fort on the western bank of the river near its mouth. In 1799 they found an inscribed stone built into the fort, which they called Fort Julien. The Rosetta Stone bore the same decree in three scripts; its inscriptions later helped scholars decipher ancient Egyptian writing, giving the river port's name a place in the history of learning.