Beheira Governorate, Egypt

Beheira governorate is located on the coast of Nile Delta in the north of Egypt. Its capital is the city of Damanhur. The name ‘Beheira’ means ‘the Lake’ in Arabic, and true to its namesake, the governorate is home to many water bodies of the Delta region. This governorate is particularly important because of the city of Rosetta, which is one of the most important port cities in Egypt. Beheira governorate is not a highly-populated region, and the average population density is only approximately 500 per square kilometer. The economic health of this governorate region is highly influenced by various key industries including textiles, fisheries, carpet weaving, chemical production factories and electrical power generation. Beheira is also rich in the cultivation of cotton, potato, and dates; giving rise to the related industries of potato processing, picking dates and cotton ginning.

Features of Some of The Cities of the Beheira Governorate

Beheira governorate consists of 14 cities and 13 centers. These 14 cities are Damanhur (the capital), Abu Hummus, Abou El Matamer, Edko, El Delengat, El Mahmoudiyah, Rahmaniya, Etay El Barud, Hosh Issa, Kafr el-Dawwar, Kom Hamada, Nubariyah, Rosetta, Shubrakhit, Wadi El Natrun and Badr. All of these cities are interconnected by Egypt's four major highways; namely the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, the Cairo Agricultural Road, the International Road and the Circular Road.

Damanhur

This prominent city in lower Egypt is the capital of Beheira governorate. According to the Egyptian script, its name means ‘the city of the God Horus,' as this ancient city was dedicated in the name of the Egyptian deity Horus. It is a densely-populated city and recently made headlines for being the birthplace of Ahmed H. Zewail, 1999 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Wadi El Natrun

This town is located in a valley of the same name. It received its name from natron salt, a special kind of salt produced from the eight lakes of the region. In ancient Christian Scriptures, this town was mentioned as Scetis and it is particularly famous for housing some of the oldest Christian monastery sites in Egypt. These monasteries are sacred to Christians and were inhabited by some revered Christian saints in including Saint Amun, Saint Arsenius and Saint Samuel the Confessor.

Abu Hummus

This is a medium-sized town and one of the administrative centers of Beheira. It is named after a well-known local sheikh, who lived in the town years ago. Abu Hummus is also well-known because of being the location where you can see the Nakhla meteorite, which fell near the town in 1911, most likely from Mars.

Rosetta

Rosetta is an economically vital port city near Alexandria. In earlier times it was known as ‘Rashid’ in Arabic, which means ‘Guide’. The town was renamed as ‘Rosetta’ by French invaders in 1249, who named it after the Rosetta Stone, a granodiorite stele, on which a decree of King Ptolemy V was written in 196 B.C. Rosetta is a popular tourist destination due to the presence of a palace built during Ottoman rule called Fort Julien. Fort Julien was built by the French in 1799 and has beautiful architecture as well as numerous orchards surrounding it of delicious citrus fruits. Rosetta reached its height of popularity as a tourist location for British tourists in the 19th century.

Kafr el-Dawwar

This is the seat of several key industries, including a power generation plant, textile industries, paints, chemicals and silk fibers. Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is the largest industrial company in this city. Some ancient pyramids of the rulers of the Ptolemaic period, near this city are also well-known tourist attractions.