El-Arich

El-Arich (in Arabic Al “Arish , العريش) is the capital of the Egyptian governorship of Shamal Sina”. It counted 114.900 inhabitants in 2002. It is a seaside resort located on the coast the Mediterranean of the peninsula of the the Sinai, with 344 kilometers of the Cairo.

El-Arich has an airport (code AITA: AAC).

History

The city is located near the ptolémaïque locality of Rhinocolura, and was sometimes identified wrongly with the Moyen-âge with the biblical site of Soukkot, because arich is the Arab equivalent of the Hebrew word soukkot ( huts ). It was strengthened by the Othoman in 1560.

During the Countryside of Egypt of Bonaparte, it was besieged by the French forces, and fell 11 days after February 19th, 1799. It is also in El-Arich that the French signed in 1800 the capitulation by which Egypt had to be evacuated.

The fort was later destroyed by the British bombardments during the First World War.

El-Arich briefly passed under administration Israél ienne in 1956, then between 1967 and 1979, date on which it was reassigned in Egypt.

It is now an important point of commercial passage between the two countries, and an appreciated tourist destination, in spite of the attacks which took place there on April 26th, 2006.

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