El Arish
El Arish (alternate spelling Al Arish) is an Egyptian city on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai peninsula. It is the capital and largest city of the Sina ash-Shamaliyah administrative division, and is 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of Cairo. Its population as of 2002 was estimated at 114,900. The city sprung up around a Bedouin settlement in the vicinity of the ancient Ptolemaic Dynasty outpost of Rhinocolura. In the Middle Ages pilgrims misidentified the site as the Sukkot of the Bible. Arish means "palm huts" in Arabic corresponding to the Hebrew Sukkot. 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. The fort was destroyed by British bombers during World War I, and the city - along with the rest of the Sinai - underwent two periods of Israeli occupation, the first during the Suez crisis in 1956 and the second from the Six Day War in June of 1967 until Israeli forces withdrew in April of 1982. An increasingly popular tourist destination, El Arish is situated at .
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