Al-Matariyyah
Encyclopedia
Greater Cairo
Greater Cairo is the largest metropolitan area in Egypt and the third largest urban area in the Islamic World after Jakarta and Greater Istanbul. It is the largest urban area in Africa. It is the world's 16th largest metropolitan area, consisting of governorates Cairo, Giza and Shubra El Khiema of...
, east of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. The district is unrelated to the El Matareya
El Matareya
El Matareya is a region in Egypt. Located in the Dakahlia Governorate, it lies on the Lake Manzala coast in the northeastern part of the country....
coastal region in the Dakahlia Governorate
Dakahlia Governorate
Dakahlia Governorate is an Egyptian governorate lying north east of Cairo. Its area is about 3,500 km² and it has a population of about 5 million. The capital is Mansoura.-Overview:...
. The Al-Matariyyah district's location was part of the ancient city of Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
.
Name
The name Al-Matariyyah is thought to come from LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name of Mater
Mater
*Mater is a formal term for mother, from Latin.*Mater : The dura mater and pia mater are membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord in humans.Mater may also refer to:-Australia:*Mater Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales...
which means 'mother', and is from the presence of the 'tree of the Virgin Mary' in this district.
History
Al-Matariyya, with the nearby Ain ShamsAin Shams
Ain Shams or Ein Shams is a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. The name means "eye of the sun" in Arabic, with reference to the fact that Ain Shams is built on top of the ancient city of Heliopolis, once the spiritual centre of ancient Egyptian sun-worship.According to the 10th century Jewish biblical...
district, had a notable history during Egypt's Pharaonic period
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
as a part of ancient Heliopolis. The district has archaeological sites of the period, some only recently discovered, beneath its current structures. In ancient Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times Heliopolis belonged to the Augustamnica
Augustamnica
Augustamnica or Avgoustamnikai was a Roman province of Egypt created during the 5th century and was part of the Diocese of Oriens first and then of the Diocese of Egypt, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 640s...
province. Legend tells of the Christian Holy Family
Holy Family
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph.The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Roman Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family...
sheltering under a tree in Heliopolis, presently known as 'the tree of the Virgin Mary' , now with the Chapel of the Virgin in Al-Matariyyah.
The French naturalist Pierre Belon du Mans mentions visiting Al-Matariyyah in his 1547 journey to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Al-Mataryiah once had the villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
s of prominent people. The famous Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi
Ahmed Shawqi
Ahmed Shawqi was the great Arabic Poet-Laureate, an Egyptian poet and dramatist who pioneered the modern Egyptian literary movement, most notably introducing the genre of poetic epics to the Arabic literary tradition...
lived in a villa he named ‘Karmet Ibn Hani’ or Ibn Hani’s Vineyard كرمة ابن هانىء here, near the palace of the Khedive Abbas II
Abbas II of Egypt
HH Abbas II Hilmi Bey was the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan .-Early life:...
at Saray El-Qobba, until his exile from Egypt at World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Historic elements
Ra
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
—Atum
Atum
Atum, sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology.- Name :Atum's name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been interpreted as being the 'complete one' and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to...
constructed by Pharaoh Senusret I
Senusret I
Senusret I was the second pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC, and was one of the most powerful kings of this Dynasty. He was the son of Amenemhat I and his wife Nefertitanen. His wife and sister was Neferu. She was also the mother of the successor Amenemhat II...
(1971 BCE—1926 BCE) of the Twelfth Dynasty
Twelfth dynasty of Egypt
The twelfth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties XI, XIII and XIV under the group title Middle Kingdom.-Rulers:Known rulers of the twelfth dynasty are as follows :...
. The 68 ft (20.73 m) tall red granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
obelisk weighs 120 tons—240000 pounds (108,862.2 kg).
A pink granite megalithic colossus statue, with features resembling those of the Pharaoh Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
, was found in Al-Matariyyah in 2006, weighing five tons—11023 pounds (4,999.9 kg). It was at the ruins of a sun temple dating back to the reign of Ramses II (reigned 1279 BCE—1213 BCE), at the site of later Souk El-Khamis.
The underground tombs of High Priests of Re
High Priest of Re
The High Priest of Re, or the High Priest of Ra, was known in Egyptian as the wr-m3w which translates as Greatest of Seers. The main cult of Re, or Ra, was in ancient Heliopolis, northeast of present day Cairo. The high priests of Ra are not as well documented as the high priests of other deities...
of the Sixth Dynasty
Sixth dynasty of Egypt
The sixth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and V under the group title the Old Kingdom.-Pharaohs:...
(2345 BCE—2181 BCE) were found in the southeast corner of the Re-Atum Temple archaeological site in Al-Matariyyah. The Necropolis
Necropolis
A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...
of Heliopolis, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the Masalla obelisk in Al-Matariyyah, dates from the Middle Kingdom
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BC and 1650 BC, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate...
(c. 2055 BCE—1550 BCE) and New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
(c. 1550 BCE—1069 BCE). A domed tomb made for a priest during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty
Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC . The Dynasty's reign The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (also written Dynasty XXVI or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC...
(c. 685 BCE—525 BCE), was discovered under a construction site in 2004. Many funereal small figure statues were found inside (over 400), and hieroglyphic writing was on the tomb's walls from the 7th century BCE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
.
Education
- Desert Research Center, established by Laszlo AlmasyLászló AlmásyLászló Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert researcher, aviator, Scout-leader and soldier who also served as the basis for the protagonist in Michael Ondaatje's 1992 novel The English Patient and the movie based on it.-Biography:Almásy was born in...
. - FacultyFaculty (university)A faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
of Engineering, Helwan UniversityHelwan UniversityHelwan University is a public university based in Helwan in Egypt. It comprises 18 faculties as well as 50 research centers.Generally, it is known for engineering and business studies... - National Urology Institute of Egypt
- Al-Matariyyah teaching hospital
Industry
The western part of Al-Matariyyah, within the industrial area of Musturud along the Ismailiya canal, is the location of oil companies (Shell, Misr Petrol, and General Association of Oil in Egypt), and food industries (“Bisko Misr” and “Misr lil Albaan”).See also
- Heliopolis (ancient)Heliopolis (ancient)Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
- Heliopolis (Cairo suburb)Heliopolis (Cairo Suburb)Modern Heliopolis is a district in Cairo, Egypt. The city was established in 1905 by the Heliopolis Oasis Company, headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain, as well as Boghos Nubar, son of the Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha.-History:The Baron Empain, a well known...
- Heliopolis styleHeliopolis styleHeliopolis style is an early 20th century architectural style developed in the new suburb of Heliopolis in eastern Cairo, Egypt. The Belgian Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company, responsible for planning and developing the new suburb, created the new style to implement an exclusive...
- architecture - El MatareyaEl MatareyaEl Matareya is a region in Egypt. Located in the Dakahlia Governorate, it lies on the Lake Manzala coast in the northeastern part of the country....
- A city in Dakahlia governorate.