Al Minya Governorate

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Map of Egypt showing Al Minya Governorate.

Al Minya (Arabic: محافظة المنيا ) (also AL-Minia) is one of the governorates of Upper Egypt. The name originates from the chief city of the governorate, originally known in Sahidic Coptic as tmoone (ⲧⲙⲟⲟⲛⲉ) and in Bohairic as thmonē (ⲑⲙⲟⲛⲏ), meaning “the residence”, in reference to a monastery formerly in the area. (Even today, large numbers of Christians live in the governorate, particularly in the city of Mallawi, and there are a number of active monasteries concentrated in the region.)

Al Minya is dubbed by the locals عروس الصعيد or the "Bride of Upper-Egypt". This represents its vitality in linking the north of the nation with upper Egypt (to the south), also by analogy with Alexandria, nicknamed the "Bride of the Mediterranean Sea" — or عروس البحر المتوسط. The name may also refer to a famous ancient Egyptian tradition, possibly near one of the local ancient sites, known as the bride of the Nile. This was a sacrificial practice of sinking a female virgin into the River Nile as a token wife for the annual flood to come high and early. [1]

1 Location and setting
2 Agriculture and industry
3 History
4 Trivia
5 Source
6 External links

[edit] Location and setting

Al Minya lies on the western bank of the Nile, in the centre of the country almost midway between Cairo and Luxor. Its capital is of the same name, with nearly 300,000 inhabitants. The governorate's total population exceeds 2 million (~5.5% of Egypt's total); it is one of the most highly populated governorates of Upper Egypt. It contains nine cities; 3,375 villages; and 10,875 hamlets, within the following nine boroughs, from north to south:

Al Edwa
Maghagha
Bani Mazar
Matai
Samallout
Al Minya City (the capital, 245 km. south of Cairo).
Abu Quorqas
Mallawi
Dayr Muas

[edit] Agriculture and industry

Al Minya Governorate is an important agricultural and industrial region. Among its principal crops are sugar-cane, cotton, beans, soya beans, garlic, onions, vegetables of various sorts, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, and grapes. Among the leading local industries are food processing (especially sugar and the drying and grinding of onions), spinning and weaving of cotton, perfumes, oils and fats, cement-making, quarrying (especially limestone), and brick-making.

[edit] History

Very little is known today about Al Minya Governorate compared to its great wealth of important archaeological sites. Its remarkable history, including Pharonic, Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic periods, has not yet received the full attention of scholars.

[edit] The Pharonic Period

Akoris is located on the eastern bank of the River Nile, about 10 km. north of Al Minya. It has a history dating from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period.

The village of Bani Hasan al Shurruq, which lies on the eastern bank of the Nile, 20 km. south of the city of Al Minya, houses 390 rock-cut decorated tombs and chapels from the Middle Kingdom (2000–1580 B.C., especially the sixteenth dynasty). The Speos Artemidos is near by.

Al Amarna lies on the eastern bank of the Nile, 67 km. south of al Minya. A city originally built (called then Akhetaten) by Pharaoh Akhnaten and dedicated to the god Aton. There Akhnaten lived with his beautiful wife, Nefertiti, and daughters in isolation, devoting himself to the monotheistic religion that he preached, after he abandoned the old capital of Thebes. The remains of the palaces, temples and noble tombs still exist today despite of the attempts by Horemheb to disassemble them after Akhnaten's death.

Finally, in Mallawi there is the temple of Ramesses II built in commemoration of the god Thoth. This place contains also the Mallawi Museum with a collection of antiquities featuring items from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in particular.

Other archaeological sites in the region include Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Dayr Abu Hinis, Dayr al Barsha, and al Shaykh Said.

[edit] The Roman Times

The village of Al Ashmunayn was the capital at that time and it was called Hermopolis Magna It was a center of worship of the god Thoth. It lies on the western bank of the Nile Valley, about 58 km. south of Al Minya. It contains the ruins of a Greek temple similar to the Parthenon in Greece. Millions of embalmed ibises and baboons were also discovered in the nearby Tounah Al Gebel (10 km. south). The tomb and chapel of Petosiris, the high priest is also nearby.

Antinoupolis was built in 130 A.D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian in memory of his favorite cup-bearer Antinous. Located on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 25 km. south of Al Minya, it also contains monuments dating from the reign of Ramesses III.

[edit] The Byzantine ("Coptic") Period

The Monastery of the Virgin stands on Gabal Al Tayr, Mountain of the Birds, some 40 km. north of Al Minya on the eastern bank of the Nile Valley. The church was built by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, in 328 on the site where it is claimed that Mary, Jesus and Joseph of Nazareth stayed during their flight to Egypt.

Oxyrhynchus was an important administrative center from the beginning of the Hellenistic Period to the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641; it is an important archaeological source for papyruses from that period.

[edit] The Islamic Period

Finally, Al Shaykh Abadah contains important monuments dedicated to the renowned Muslim warrior Ibadah Ibn Al Samet, Ibadah son of the silent.

Maghagha hosts the mosque of the noted Muslim, Zayid ibn al Mugharah.

[edit] Trivia

Al Minya Governarate has a university.
Al Minya Governarate signed a partnership with the twin city Hildes Heimin in (West) Germany on July 18, 1979.
Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the first lady of Egypt, was born near Al Minya City.