Arish
— — palms running down to a quiet sea.
Not only on a wall.
“Arish is the capital of Egypt's North Sinai governorate, on the Mediterranean coast about 160 kilometres east of the Suez Canal. The city sits at the mouth of Wadi El-Arish, the longest dry-river system in the Sinai Peninsula. Date palms run down to a wide pale beach. An Ottoman-period fort holds the old centre. The sea here is quieter than the Delta beaches to the west.
Arish, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Arish, El-Arish in older transliteration, is the capital of the North Sinai governorate on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, roughly 160 kilometres east of Port Said and the Suez Canal. The city sits at the mouth of Wadi El-Arish, the longest wadi in the Sinai Peninsula, which drains a large interior basin into the sea after rare flash rains. Population is estimated around 200,000. The Ottoman-period El-Arish Fortress, built under Sultan Suleiman in 1560 and rebuilt under Muhammad Ali in 1809, anchors the old quarter near the seafront.
The El-Arish Fortress is a square mud-brick and stone enclosure raised in 1560 on the line of an older Roman post and rebuilt by Muhammad Ali in 1809 to guard the Sinai land route between Egypt and the Levant. It changed hands repeatedly: Napoleon's troops captured it in 1799, Ottoman forces retook it the next year, and British forces held it during both world wars. Inside the old quarter, a small mosque and a traders' bazaar still anchor the working life of the city, and date palms shade the lanes that run down to the sea.
The Mediterranean coast at Arish runs pale gold for tens of kilometres, less developed than the Delta beaches to the west and historically used by Bedouin fishing families as much as by visitors. Date palms come almost to the dune line, watered by the shallow aquifer Wadi El-Arish feeds. Local catch includes sea bream, mullet, and the small sardines sold smoked in the bazaar. The wadi itself runs only after winter rain, when it can fill quickly enough to wash out the coast road. The late-summer date harvest is the city's older economy.