#3: [31-Aug-18]

#2: [31-Oct-08]

30-Jun-2001 -- This Confluence (our first - and the first registered Egyptian Confluence!) was bagged by a joint British-Canadian team consisting of myself (Brian Davies), Tom Radford, Dave Rochford and Bill Sercombe on 30 June. It was an easy one - pretty good road all the way. It took us about 2 hours to battle our way through the Cairo rush-hour traffic (the rush hour here lasts from 5 am to about 1 am), but once we got onto the Alex Agricultural Road (that's how it's signposted!) it was relatively smooth going.

The Project's mission of sampling the Earth's land surface is well served by this Confluence. It is situated in absolutely typical Nile Delta terrain - on a farm track running along an irrigation canal, surrounded by lush cultivation. The canal runs approximately N-S, and we got some funny looks from the local fallāḥīn as we edged up and down the canal bank trying to get all the latitude zeroes to line up on the GPS; when we actually got out of the car we discovered that it was possible to cross the canal and stand exactly on the confluence point, so we took turns doing so. A tractor chugged past. Somehow, we felt that we were part of a greater whole (ahem). And then we got back in the car and proceeded to get REALLY lost in downtown Maḥalla al-kubrā - but that's another story.