Current Time in Damietta, Egypt

Damietta, known in Arabic as Dumyat, stands in the northeastern corner of the Nile Delta, on the eastern branch of the river a short distance from the point where it meets the Mediterranean. Water defines the setting, with the Nile on one side, the sea to the north and the wide shallow expanse of Lake Manzala to the east, a wetland famous for its fish and for the migrating birds that pause there each year. The climate is mild and humid, with warm summers cooled by sea winds and gentle, occasionally rainy winters.

The city has around three hundred thousand residents, while the governorate that surrounds it holds well over a million. Damietta is one of the great historic ports of Egypt and today combines shipping, fishing, agriculture and a manufacturing tradition that has made it famous throughout the Arab world.

Its story stretches back to antiquity, when a settlement here guarded the eastern mouth of the Nile, and it grew into a wealthy medieval trading city dealing in linen, oil and grain with the merchants of Venice, Pisa and Genoa. That wealth and its strategic position made it a target. During the Fifth Crusade a European army besieged and briefly held the city, and a generation later a French expedition led by King Louis IX captured it again before being defeated further up the river. To prevent any repetition, Egypt's rulers destroyed the old port and rebuilt the town several kilometres inland, which is where it stands today. Under later dynasties it recovered as a centre for rice, textiles and coffee.

Modern Damietta is best known as the furniture capital of Egypt. Thousands of workshops and factories, many of them family businesses passed down through generations, produce carved beds, inlaid cabinets and gilded chairs that are sold across the Middle East and beyond, and a purpose built furniture city on the outskirts has expanded the industry further. Wandering through the workshop districts, hearing the sound of chisels and smelling fresh sawdust, gives a vivid sense of the city's working life. Damietta also lends its name to Domiati cheese, a soft white cheese eaten throughout Egypt, and it is known for sweets, especially those made with rice and cream.

The most popular local destination is Ras El Bar, a resort at the very tip of the delta where the Nile flows into the sea, with a corniche, wooden chalets, seafood restaurants and a long lighthouse jetty from which visitors watch the two waters meet. Old mosques, Ottoman era houses and a small museum recall earlier centuries, while boat trips on Lake Manzala reveal a landscape of reeds and fishing boats.

The deep water port handles containers, grain and gas exports, making it one of the busiest in the country. Roads connect Damietta to Port Said, Mansoura and Cairo, and Damietta University serves the region with faculties in engineering, medicine and the arts.

Damietta remains important as a crusader era landmark, a modern industrial port and a distinctive corner of the Egyptian delta.