16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

105 Zadar, Croatia | 26 September – 1 October 2021 Yomna Mohamed Awad Alexandria University, Center of maritime archaeology and underwater cultural heritage, Egypt Fishing boats in El Max. Historical and Ethnographic study El Max is located in the west of Alexandria governorate, Egypt. Its name reflects the name of one of the taxes which was collected from ships in this area. El Max was actually a fishermen’s community located around the freshwater Mahmoudiya canal, which was dug in 1820 by order of the governor Muhammad Ali in order to bring water from the Nile to Alexandria and also to be the route for cargo ships. It is a sub-canal from the Nile River which goes through Alexandria, ending in the Mediterranean Sea. In this area, the waters of the Nile are mixed with sea water, resulting in a different marine environment. The canal was named in the past after Sultan Mahmoud II, Sultan of Istan- bul, as Egypt was at that time part of the Ottoman Empire. The canal played an important role in navigation during the 19 th century. When the canal closed to navigation, a group of fishermen took up resi- dence on the quayside, creating small nests, with their numbers increasing as the fishermen started to turn these spots into homes. These changes happened dur- ing many generations of fishermen. The homes that hugged the waterway, lined by boats at the entrances to the homes, became a wonderful sight. Perhaps the most distinctive scenes in that region are the gatherings of fishermen on boats to weave nets and prepare them for fishing. The daily life of the residents was limit- ed to fishing, as well as storing and selling fish. A few months ago, the government decided to remove all houses which are located on the canal as part of a national project, so the researchers worked to document the site through visits, capture photos, and do several interviews with fishermen there to record the development of boats, fishing, and navigation methods before the site was demolished.