Egyptian Chronicles: Follow Up : The Al-Burullus City

Here is quick info about Al-Burullus City ,You know that there were violent clashes between the citizens and the police , still the city deserves more attention. As almost every City and place in Egypt , it has got real long history ,I will try to summarize it in the few minutes

Al-Burullus is a coastal city,well it is actually a peninsula , the Mediterranean sea is in its north and the lake of Al-Burullus is in its south. The city of Al-Burullus itself is historical ,It is named after the Al Burullus lake and the fortress of Salah El-Din known as “the tower or Al Borg” , officially it is “Borg Al-Burullus” still it is known as “Al-Burullus”

The city has got one of the original light houses that Khedive Ismail had built in 1869. There is also a from the time of Ahmed Orabi and his battle against the British invasion in the 19th century.

It has its own battle in 1956 against the French invaders on the 4th of November which is its national day , the famous Battle of Jules Jamal and co-heroes against Jean Bart.

The Al Burullus lake is from our biggest and oldest natural lakes in Egypt and from our main resources in fishing. About 21,8% of the total production of fish in Egypt comes from there . It was known in Ptolemaic era as Buticus Lacus then Nichiolias Lacus till the Romans came and conquered Cleopatra . The lake name had changed since then to become “Burullos”, according to some stories it was named after a Roman military commander , in another stories it was named after a Christian Priest. Anyhow this name stuck with it with little modification due to time to become “Al Burullos”

Lake Al Burullus Arial Map

The majority of people in the city about 80% there work as fishermen depending either on the sea or the lake and the rest 20% work in professions related to fishing like making boats and so on , also they have carpenter workshops. This is their lifestyle that did not change for centuries. It is simple life , they are from the low working class outside Cairo that the government that put them in its consideration at all , the government believe that the security forces and the policemen would scare them.

The lake of Al Burullus is a protected area , a national reserve by the orders of the ministry of environment , already it is a hot spot for the birds in Egypt due to the fact that it is in the way of the bird annual migration from the north to the south in the winter.

This is a quick information about the city of Al-Burullus ,I found that in all the coverage there is complete neglect to the city background and history despite the reader especially the foreigner must know the background in order to have complete picture.

Photo Source : From Flickr User Diablooz