Babaxarque

Babaxarque (cf. Arabic الباب الشرقي *al-Bab al-Sharqi* "the Eastern Gate") is a city of the Umayyad Caliphate in New Andalusia, located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. (The city center roughly corresponds to OTL Cairo, Illinois, but it's expanded to the far shore of both rivers as well.)
Located in what was originally a swamp, Babaxarque was built slowly and at great human cost, often using the Army to provide corvee labor. It was worth the investment: Babaxarque was the site of several battles during the Anglo-Moorish War of 1864-8, which left it devastated but spurred a much more ambitious reconstruction and expansion. After the war, Babaxarque was linked to Medina Almogran by the Red Line, becoming an important city for rail transport as well.

Defences

Oh boy, where to start?

• Built in a swamp between two rivers known for flooding, Babaxarque was the UCNA's first city to be completely enclosed by levees and flood walls. Since the installation of a floodgate in 1910, Babaxarque has been able to completely seal itself from approaching flood waters.
• A heavy artillery emplacement overlooks the Ohio-Mississippi confluence. The nature and number of guns in that emplacement has varied over time; as our story begins (and since the modernization of Yusuf II), the bastion's been armed with siege howitzers capable of high-angle shelling from several kilometers away.
• After the Anglo-Moorish War, similar emplacements were added on the far shores. Most have gotten smaller with modernization, but they're still there.
• Babaxarque is a FANA stronghold. Anyone who runs this gauntlet of artillery, or attacks from land, still has to deal with a military base of angry jundis.

Industry & Trade

Babaxarque's first historic work was constructing itself.

• Babaxarque was a center of river ferrying during the 19th century. As our story begins, this line of work is dying out.
• Babaxarque isn't the end of the Red Line, but it is the end of several Anglo-Scottish rail routes from the north and east. Because there's a hard break of gauge, all cargo to or from the eastern seaboard has to be transshipped, and Babaxarque is where a lot of it happens.
• The Babaxarque Institute of Engineering was built here, partly to train FANA's engineer corps during the city's reconstruction.

Type

City

Population

30000

Location under

New Andalusia