Arish

Australian Light Horse camp beside the seaside at ʻArīsh, 1915–18

Staff of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein at el-ʻArīsh, 1916

El-ʻArīsh airfield, World War II.

The earliest historical reference to the city is found in the Septuagint, Isaiah 27:12. The city grew around a Bedouin settlement near the ancient Ptolemaic outpost of Rhinocorura (in Greek "the place where noses (of criminals) are cut off").[3] In the Middle Ages, pilgrims misidentified the site as the Sukkot of the Bible. ʻArīsh means "palm huts" in Modern Standard Arabic. M. Ignace de Rossi derived the Arabic name from the Egyptian ϫⲟⲣϣⲁ(ⲓ), 'noseless', an analogue of Greek Rhinocorura.[4]

New fortifications were constructed at the original site by the Ottoman Empire in 1560. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French laid siege to the fort, which fell after 11 days on February 19, 1799. During World War I, the fort was destroyed by British bombers. It was later the location of the 45th Stationary Hospital which treated casualties of the Palestine campaign. The remains of those who died there were later moved to Kantara Cemetery.

Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, proposed ʻArīsh as a Jewish homeland since neither the Sultan nor the Kaiser supported settlement in Palestine. In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, agreed to consider ʻArīsh, and Herzl commissioned the lawyer David Lloyd George a charter draft, but his application was turned down once an expedition, led by Leopold Kessler had returned and submitted a detailed report to Herzl, which outlined a proposal to divert some of the Nile waters to the area for the purpose of settlement.[5]

El-ʻArīsh Military Cemetery was built in 1919 marked the dead of World War I. It was designed by Robert Lorimer.[6]

On December 8, 1958, an air battle occurred between Egyptian and Israeli air forces over ʻArīsh.[7] ʻArīsh was under military occupation by Israel briefly in 1956 and again from 1967 to 1979. It was returned to Egypt in 1979 after the signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.

In the Sinai mosque attack of 24 November 2017, 305 people were killed in a bomb and gun attack at the mosque in al-Rawda, 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of ʻArīsh.[8][9]

On 9 February 2021 six locals were killed by ISIL militants.[10]

Arish is in the northern Sinai, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip.[11] North Sinai is targeted by Egyptian government planners to divert population growth from the high-density Nile Delta. It is proposed that by completing infrastructure, transportation and irrigation projects, three million Egyptians may be settled in North Sinai.[12]

Arish is the closest city to Lake Bardawil.

The city is served by el Arish International Airport. The Northern Coastal Highway runs from el-Qantarah at the Suez Canal through Arish to the Gaza border crossing at Rafah. The railway line from Cairo is under re-construction with formation works completed only as far as Bir al-Abed, west of Arish.[13] The route was formerly part of the Palestine Railways built during World War I and World War II to connect Egypt with Turkey. The railway was cut during the formation of Israel. [1][14]

The city is the site of a deep-water seaport capable of serving ships up to 30,000 tonnes, the only such port on the Sinai Peninsula. Its major exports are cement, sand, salt and marble.[15] The Sinai White Cement Company plant is 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of the city.[16]

Its Köppen climate classification is hot desert (BWh), although prevailing Mediterranean winds moderate its temperatures, typical to the rest of the northern coast of Egypt.

The highest record temperature was 45 °C (113 °F), recorded on May 29, 2003, while the lowest record temperature was −6 °C (21 °F), recorded on January 8, 1994.[17]

• List of cities and towns in Egypt
• Sinai and Palestine Campaign