Nile flood overwhelms Fatimid Cairo

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An unusually high Nile flood overwhelmed the canal system and levees protecting Fatimid Cairo, inundating low-lying neighborhoods, destroying warehouses of stored grain, and triggering famine across Lower Egypt that lasted well into the following year. The disaster starkly underscored the fragility of the dying Fatimid regime in its final years, as Saladin's disciplined Ayyubid soldiers prepared to take permanent administrative control of the wealthiest country in the Islamic world.