Abū Qīr (Arabic أبو قير) (also Abukir or Aboukir) is a village on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, 23 kilometers (14.5 miles) northeast of Alexandria by rail, containing a castle used as a state prison by Muhammad Ali of Egypt.
Near the village are many remains of ancient buildings, Egyptian, Greek and Roman. About three kilometers (two miles) southeast of the village are ruins supposed to mark the site of Canopus. A little farther east the Canopic branch of the Nile (now dry) entered the Mediterranean.
Stretching eastward as far as the Rosetta mouth of the Nile is the spacious Abu Qir Bay (Khalīj Abū Qīr), where on 1 August1798, Horatio Nelson fought the Battle of the Nile, often referred to as the "Battle of Aboukir Bay". The latter title is applied more properly to an engagement between the French expeditionary army and the Turks fought on 25 July1799. Near Abū Qīr, on 8 March1801, units of the British army commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby landed from their transports in the face of a strenuous opposition from a French force entrenched on the beach. Abercromby died of wounds received in the battle.
Specialized hospital at Abu Qir
Near its shore Nelson's Island is present where the remains of British officers, sailors, marines, women, and children were uncovered12.
