Kafr ad Dawwar, city in northeastern Egypt, in the Buhayrah governorate, located 188 km (117 mi) northwest of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and 28 km (17 mi) southeast of Alexandria, the country's major port. Long-staple cotton, grown in the surrounding irrigated countryside, is processed in Kafr ad Dawwar's textile factories. Other local crops include wheat, rice, onions, and clover. Kafr ad Dawwar is located in a low-lying area on a major irrigation canal leading from the Delta Barrage, a dam on the Nile River north of Cairo. Kafr ad Dawwar has rail connections to Cairo and Alexandria.
The area has several connections with the Egyptian campaign of French army commander Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon I) in 1798 and 1799. Just north of Kafr ad Dawwar is Abu Qir (Abukir) Bay, where the French navy was decisively defeated by the British fleet of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson in 1798. Across Lake Idku to the northeast is the area where, in 1799, Napoleon's soldiers discovered the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
