Edku ( ar, إدكو) (also Edkhou, or Idku) is a town in the

Beheira Governorate Beheira Governorate ( ar, محافظة البحيرة ', , "the governorate of the Lake") is a coastal governorate in Egypt. Located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, its capital is Damanhur. Overview Beheira Governorate ...

, located east of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

and west of

Rashid Rashid or Rachid ( ar, راشد ) and Rasheed ( ar, رشيد ), which means "rightly guided", may refer to: *Rashid (name), also Rachid and Rasheed, people with the given name or surname *Rached, a given name and surname *Rashad, a surname Plac ...

, overlooking the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. Edku lies on a sandy strip behind Abi Qir Bay, in the northwestern Nile River delta. Immediately south is Lake Idku, a 58-square-mile (150-square-km) lagoon that stretches some 22 miles (35 km) behind and parallel to the coast and has a maximum width of 16 miles (26 km). Drained by Al-Madiyyah Channel, connecting with the Mediterranean, the lagoon is reputed to be the ancient Canopic branch of the Nile. Edku's isthmus position enables it to capitalize on the fisheries of both the lagoon and the Mediterranean. Other industries include rice milling and silk weaving. Edku is linked by coastal road and railway to Alexandria, 26 miles (42 km) to the west-southwest, and Rosetta (Rashid ), 12 miles (19 km) northeast. Just northeast of the town lies a large natural gas liquefaction (

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

) plant jointly-owned by

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...

. The plant complex opened in 2005 and consists of two

LNG train Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

s capable of liquifying up to a total of 7.2 million tons of natural gas per year. It is one of two LNG export plants in Egypt (the other being the

SEGAS LNG The Hellenic Athletics Federation (Greek: ; abbreviated SEGAS) is Greece's governing body for amateur sport. SEGAS was created in 1897 and has been the principal organiser of many international sporting competitions held in Greece. The associatio ...

plant in

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

History

Edmu was one of the ancient cities of the Pharaonic era. It was within the province of "Ra Amenati", where many ancient pharaonic cities have become uninhabited to be replaced by other cities, including the city of "Tajo", which is Edku currently, and some historians believe that the name of Edco Pharaonic is " Jackat " which means in

Ancient Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the deciphe ...

the high hill, and it is clear that the urbanization is related to the sandy hills north of Lake Idku and also tells one of the historians that its ancient name is mentioned in the bishop's revelation in the name of Etco. Idku was conquered in the succession of

Omar bin Al-Khattab ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...

by order of him to the leader Amr bin Al-Aas at the hands of "Abdullah bin Omar" and the governor of Idko was "Zarand". The king and his army took refuge in the forts and closed the walls, and the Arabs surrounded and the siege lasted for six months. The 1885 Census of Egypt recorded Edku as a

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

in the district of

Atf The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...

Gharbia Governorate Gharbia Governorate ( ar, محافظة الغربية ', ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the north of the country, south of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and north of Monufia Governorate. Its capital is Tanta, which is 90&n ...

; at that time, the population of the town was 5,751 (2,937 men and 2,814 women).

References

External links

Map of Edku
Populated places in Beheira Governorate {{Egypt-geo-stub