The western point of Aboukir Bay is formed by an island, now called in
our charts, Nelson’s Island.
On this island probably, and the adjoining peninsula, stood the ancient
Canopus, both being, to this day, covered with ruins, supposed to be
those of that celebrated city.
This, I am inclined to think, is the Canopic Island known to all
antiquity, and in later times called the Island Aboukir. (Eutychius,
Ann. 2. 508.) This would account for the testimony given by Pliny,
Strabo, &c. as to the insular situation of Canopus, and by Scylax, as to
an island in the Canopic mouth, without having recourse to the
supposition that the Isthmus, somewhere between Alexandria and Aboukir
castle, had been covered by the sea, which indeed seems rather to have
encroached upon, than receded from, that part of the coast.