Beyond Mex are the limestone quarries that provided the stone for the ancient and the modern towns. They are cut in the ridge that here separates lake and sea.
The village of Dekhela lies further along the beach. Fine walk from it to Amrieh (Section VIII). Beyond it the desert begins, strewn with fragments of antique pottery.
Beyond Dekhela, at the western point of the Harbour: Fort Agame. A strategic point in Napoleonic times (p. [86]) and in the Bombardment of Alexandria (p. [94]). Magnificent bathing. Just off the Fort is Marabout Island, so called from the tomb of a local saint which stands here, adorned with votive models of boats. Makrizi (writing in the 14th cent.) says that men lived longer on Marabout Island than any where else in the world, but no one at all lives here now. From it extends the chain of reefs that close the entrance of the Western Harbour (p. [6]).—It is easy to visit this district from Alexandria by sailing boat, but not easy to get back again in the evening when the wind drops.
SECTION VII.
ABOUKIR AND ROSETTA.
Route:—By train from the Main (Cairo) sta., or from Sidi Gaber, where all trains stop, and which is also a sta. for the Ramleh tram (Section VI).
Chief Points of Interest:—Montazah; Canopus; Aboukir Bay; Rosetta.
