Arish

About Arish

Arish or El-Arish is the capital and largest city of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Mediterranean coast 344 kilometres (214 mi) northeast of Cairo and 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of the Egypt–Gaza border. Its estimated population was 204,391 in 2023.

In antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the city was known as Rinokoroura (Ancient Greek: Ῥινοκόρουρα, Coptic: ϩⲣⲓⲛⲟⲕⲟⲣⲟⲩⲣⲁ). ʻArīsh is located at the mouth of Wadi al-Arish, a 250 kilometres (160 mi) long ephemeral watercourse. The Azzaraniq Protectorate is on the eastern side of ʻArīsh.

There are several hypothetical possibilities for the origin of the modern name of the city, which is first mentioned under it in the 9th century. One possibility is that the name might be an Arab phonetic transcription of a pre-existing toponym. However, there is no name that fully qualifies as such, apart from the Ariza (Ancient Greek: Αριζα) of Hierokles, which is difficult to interpret.

Another possibility is that the name el-Arish was given to a city that already existed in...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.