Damanhur

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This article is about the Egyptian city. For the Italian spiritual community see Federation of Damanhur

Damanhur (Egyptian: DmnHur; Coptic: Ⲧⲙⲉⲛϩⲱⲣ; Arabic: دمنهور; literally 'Village of Horus') or Hermopolis Mikra (Greek: Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά) or Latin: Hermopolis Parva is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of al-Buhayrah (Beheira or Behera) governorate. It is located 160 km northwest of Cairo, and 70 km E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta, at 31°03′N 30°28′E.

In Ancient Egypt, the city was the capital of Lower Egypt's 7th Nome of A-ment. It stood on the banks of a canal which connected the lake Mareotis with the Canopic or most westerly arm of the Nile. (Champollion, L'Egypte, vol. ii. p. 249). The city was dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian god Horus. In Greek and Roman times, it was called Hermopolis Mikra or Hermopolis Parva, which would also give it an association with Hermes, the Egyptien Thoth. As Hermopolis, the city attracted the notice of numerous ancient geographers, including Stephanus of Byzantium s. v., Strabo (xvii. p. 802), Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 46), and the author of the Antonine Itinerary (p. 154).

The 1986 population of Damanhur was 188,939. The richly-cultivated Beheira province gives rise to mainly agricultural industries which include cotton ginning, potato processing, and date picking. It also has a market for cotton and rice.

Ahmed H. Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1999, was born in Damanhur in 1946.

[edit] External links

• http://www.damanhour.5u.com Arabic script
• http://www.damanhour.5u.com/en.htm English script

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).