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Show ANCIENT EL ARISH WAR REVIVES INTEREST IN CITY ALMOST FORGOTTEN. Centuries Ago It Was One of the Most Prominent Fortified Places In the East Was Ccptured by Napoleon. El Arlsh. one of tho world's forgotten for-gotten places until tho English bombarded bom-barded It n short time ngo, Is the subject sub-ject of n war geography bulletin Issued Is-sued by the National Geographic society. so-ciety. With Its lnrgo square fort unit Imttlemcnted wnlls, El Arlsh presents it much more formidable nnd l.-rpoislng appearance, lowed from the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean to the north nnd from the Desert Des-ert ct-Tlh to thj south, than its lm-portnnce lm-portnnce has warranted In recent yrars. Formerly u populous halting place for the numerous enrnvnns following fol-lowing the "short desert route" from Egypt to Syria, Its trndo has waned materially since the completion of modern railway connections with Jaf-fu, Jaf-fu, Port Said nnd Alexandria. Tho town clings to the banks of the Wnd-alel-Arlsh, a stream which becomes n small torrent after every rain. It Is more than 100 miles southwest of Jerusalem Je-rusalem nnd a slightly shorter distance dis-tance from the Suez canal, which lies to the west. The recent hostilities In this area revive n host of historical associations dating as far back as the time of tho l'haraohs, when this town was n placo of exile for political prisoners, Its ancient an-cient nuine being Ilhlnokolurn. Its present name Is supposed to be derived de-rived from the custom which obtained here of "cutting off the noses" of malefactors male-factors whose death sentence had been cummuted. ' ' Some 30 miles to the east of El Arlsh, on tli Egyptian-Syrian boundary, bound-ary, lies nnclent Ithnphta, now called Er-Itnfn, where Joscphus tells us that' the Itoinan conqueror Titus made his first stop on his mnrch ngnlnst Jerusalem. Jeru-salem. Here also Snrgon overwhelmed over-whelmed the Egyptlnns in the eighth century before the Christian era, nnd fiOO yen re Inter there wns fought on tho same sands the famous battle between be-tween I'tolemy I'hllopntor and Autl-ochus, Autl-ochus, when the chnrgtng clcphnnts of both armies played such n spectneulur role. Of these great beasts, which had been Introduced Into Syrian nnd Greek wnrfuro nfter Alexander's conquests con-quests In India, much was expected. The bnttle opened with it trumpeting dash of the opposing armored mountains moun-tains of flesh, l'tolemy's forces commanding com-manding 7.1 of the terror-Inspiring chargers, while Antiochus sent Into the fray 102. With the first onslaught practically all of l'tolemy's elephants were captured, yet he won- the day. El Arlsh fell before Napoleon's EcvDtlnn nrmv In September. 1T0S. tho i.gypunn nrmy in scpiemoer, nus, mo credit for tho city's fall being given to France's great general, Kleher, cora-; innnder of the vanguard which nlso seized Jnffn nnd Gaza. It wns during dur-ing this cnmpulgn thnt Napoleon committed com-mitted the great atrocity ut Jaffa, shooting thoso prisoners whom ho could neither guard nor feed, yet whom he fenred to releuse. After Nn-poleon's Nn-poleon's depurturo Kleber concluded a convention nt El Arlsh with tho English Eng-lish admiral. Sir William Sidney Smith, whereby tho French were to be ullowed to capitulate and were to re-celvo re-celvo snfo transport back to France. This agreement was revoked by Lord Keith, however. Whereupon Kleber, with 10,000 men, nlurched to Hellopo-lls Hellopo-lls nnd administered n crushing defeat to the Turks, who outnumbered him six to one. Had not n fanatic nssas-slnnted nssas-slnnted the great French tactician, on the day that Napoleon won the bnttlo of Marengo, the futo of French nrms In Egypt might have been different. The Admiral Smith whose agree-ntent agree-ntent with Kleber was disallowed wus tho same Urltlsh officer who had caused tho signal defeat of Nnpoleon before tho wulls of Acre, u relief work 'for which n grateful parliament voted him an annuity of 1,000. In tho center of tho town of El Arlsh Is n grnnlto wnll with nn Inscription In helroglyphlcs perpetuating u curious curi-ous legend about tho Egyptian god Shu. A short distance bejond the wulls the traveler Is shown the ruins of the building In which Baldwin I, ono of the Crusader kings of Jerusalem, Jeru-salem, died In 1118 nfter tin unsuccessful unsuccess-ful uUuck on Egypt. |