ELNE, a town of south-western France in the department of Pyrenees-Orientales, To m. S.S.E. of Perpignan by rail. Pop. The hill on which it stands, once washed by the sea, now over 3 m. distant, overlooks the plain of Roussillon. Elne, the ancient Illiberis, was named Helena by the emperor Constantine in memory of his mother. Hannibal encamped under its walls on his march to Rome in 218 B.C. The emperor Con stans was assassinated there in A.D. 35o. The town often changed hands between its capture by the Moors in the 8th century and its capitulation in 1641 to the troops of Louis XIII. From the 6th century till 1602 the town was the seat of a bishopric, which was transferred to Perpignan. The cathedral of St. Eulalie, early 12th century Romanesque, has a beautiful cloister in the same style, with interesting sculptures and three early Christian sarcophagi. There are remains of the ancient ramparts flanked by towers. Trade is in wine.
El Obeid was garrisoned by the Egyptians on their conquest of Kordofan in 1821. In September 1882 the town was assaulted by the troops of the mandi, to whom it capitulated on Jan. 17, 1883. During the Mandia the city was destroyed and deserted, and when Kordofan passed, in 1899, into the possession of the Anglo Egyptian authorities nothing was left of El Obeid but a part of the old government offices. A new town was laid out in squares, the mudiria repaired and barracks built.