This medium-size town is an easy day trip to the east of Alexandria. Rosetta (Rashid in Arabic) flourished after the Arab invasion of A.D. 640, which put an end to the Roman administration of Egypt and the dominance of Alexandria over the North Coast. The town did particularly well under the Ottoman Turks, who conquered Egypt in 1517. As the easiest Egyptian port to reach from Istanbul, it received a disproportionate benefit from the trade with Turkey.
