Abu Qir Bay delta once entered the sea in the vicinity of Heracleion or Eastern Canopus. A combination of Islamic texts and investigation using geoarchaeology suggest that this branch was still in existence in the eighth century, when a major inundation caused Eastern Canopus to sink into the bay. The Canopic branch subsequently declined and eventually became closed. On August 1, 1798, Horatio Nelson fought the naval "Battle of the Nile", often referred to as the "Battle of Aboukir Bay". (Not to be confused with the Battle of Abukir (1799) and the Battle of Abukir (1801).) On 1 March 1801, some 70 British
Canopus, Egypt borrowed from Canopus. The Egyptian city of Abu Qir ("Father Cyrus"), honoring two Christian martyrs, is located a few miles away from the ruins of Canopus. It is a village (around 1900 with 1000 inhabitants), at the end of a little peninsula north-east of Alexandria. It has a trade in quails, which are caught in nets hung along the shore. Off Aboukir on 1 August 1798, the French Mediterranean fleet was destroyed within the roads by British Admiral Horatio Nelson on 25 July 1799. Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed there a Turkish army 18,000 strong; and on 8 March 1801, the French