The Abū Qīr Bay (sometimes transliterated Abukir Bay or Aboukir Bay) (Arabic: خليج أبو قير; transliterated: Khalīj Abū Qīr) is a spacious bay on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, lying between Abu Qir (Near Alexandria) and the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It contains a natural gas field, discovered in the 1970s.
On August 1, 1798, Horatio Nelson fought the Battle of the Nile, often referred to as the "Battle of Aboukir Bay". (The latter title is applied more properly to an engagement between the French expeditionary army and the Ottomans fought on July 25, 1799.)
On 1 March 1801, some 70 British warships, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria. The intent was to defeat the French expeditionary force that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon's return to France.
Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week, but on the 8th, Captain Alexander Cochrane of HMS Ajax directed as 320 boats, in double line abreast, brought the troops ashore. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive them back and by the next day all of Sir Ralph Abercromby's British Army was ashore. The British then defeated the French army at the Battle of Alexandria. The Siege of Alexandria followed, with the city falling on 2 September 1801.