city and capital of Ash-Sharqīyah (Sharqīyah, Ash-) muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Egypt, on the Nile River delta north-northeast of Cairo. The city dates from the 1820s, when cotton cultivation spread to the eastern delta. Located at the junction of two irrigation canals (Turʿat as-Suways al-Ḥulwah 【Sweetwater Canal】 and Turʿat al-Muʿiz), Az-Zaqāzīq is about 1 mile (2 km) north of mounds marking the site of the 4th-dynasty city of Bubastis. An important road and railway junction, the city is a major cotton and grain market. Pop. (1996) 267,351.