El Matareya, Cairo

Coordinates: 30°7′46.08″N 31°18′26.94″E / 30.1294667°N 31.3074833°E / 30.1294667; 31.3074833
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with El Matareya, Dakahlia.
Mataria, with the Masalla Obelisk of Senusret I.

El Matareya (

Heliopolis
, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt.

Name

The name, El Matareya, is thought to come from the Latin word Mater which means 'mother', and is from the presence of the 'tree of the Virgin Mary' in this district.

History

Main article:
Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)

El Matareya, with the nearby

Virgin Mary',[3] now with the Chapel of the Virgin in El Matareya.[4]

The French naturalist

Pierre Belon du Mans mentions visiting El Matareya in his 1547 journey to Egypt.[5] El Matareya once had the villas of prominent people. The famous Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi 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 at Saray El-Qobba, until his exile from Egypt at World War I.[6]

Historic elements

The Masalla Obelisk, in El Matareya.

The El Masalla area of the district contains the ancient Masalla

Twelfth Dynasty.[citation needed] The 68 ft (20.73 m) tall red granite
obelisk weighs 120 tons—240,000 pounds (110,000 kg).

A pink granite megalithic colossus statue, with features resembling those of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, was found in El Matareya in 2006, weighing five tons—11,023 pounds (5,000 kg). It was at the ruins of a sun temple dating back to the reign of Ramses II (reigned 1279—1213 BCE), at the site of later Souk El-Khamis.

The underground tombs of

hieroglyphic writing was on the tomb's walls from the seventh century BCE.[2]

In March 2017, the Egyptian-German team of archaeologists unearthed an eight-meter 3,000-year-old statue that included a head and a torso thought to depict Pharaoh Ramses II. According to Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister, the statue was more likely thought to be King Psammetich I. Excavators also revealed an 80 cm-long part of a limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II while excavating the site.[10][11][12][13]

Pilgrimage site

Holy Tree of Metereah, c.1840, from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia

A sycamore tree within the suburb, known locally as the Tree of the Virgin, has been a place of pilgrimage for

Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph stopped at El Matareya (then a small village) when they fled into Egypt. Mary rested against the tree and a spring of water sprang up near it for Mary to wash the infant Jesus. For many years its bark was taken by Christians in the belief that it had miraculous properties.[15] Next to the tree is a small chapel.[16]

Administrative subdivisions

Matariya is subdivided into nine shiakhas.

Al-Matariya District map by shiakha

In the 2017 census Matariya had 602,485 residents across its nine shiakhas.[17]

Shiakhas Code 2017 Population
`Arab Abû Ṭawîla 013306 79,397
`Arab al-Ḥiṣn 013307 25,995
`Ayn Shams al-gharbiyya 013308 60,375
`Izab, al- 013301 206,947
`Izbat al-Nakhl 013309 82,863
Matariyya al-qibliyya, al- 013304 16,361
Maṭariyya al-baḥriyya, al- 013302 14,487
Maṭariyya al-gharbiyya, al- 013303 86,971
Shajarat Maryam 013305 29,089

Education

Industry

The western part of El Matareya, within the industrial area of Musturud along the Ismailia canal, is the location of oil companies (Shell, Misr Petrol, and General Association of Oil in Egypt), and food industries (BiscoMisr and Misr lil Albaan).[18]

References

  1. ^ "East Area". www.cairo.gov.eg. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  2. ^ a b Descubrimientos - Egipto - Junio / Diciembre 2004; "Pharonic tomb uncovered in Cairo, suburbs of Matareya"; August 26, 2004 . accessed 1.28.2011
  3. ^ "Holy Family in Egypt". 2002-03-24. Archived from the original on 2002-03-24. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  4. ^ "15 Top Tourist Attractions in Cairo & Easy Day Trips - PlanetWare".
  5. ^ Culture musulmane en Égypte (Suite) Archived 2008-09-12 at the Wayback Machine Page 6. (in French)
  6. ^ "My Father Shawky" by Hussin Ahmed Shawky; 2nd edition, 2006 Cairo; (in Arabic)
  7. ^ "15 Top Tourist Attractions in Cairo & Easy Day Trips - PlanetWare".
  8. ^ "El-Matariya Tombs, Heliopolis, Cairo". Archived from the original on 2010-12-23. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  9. ^ "15 Top Tourist Attractions in Cairo & Easy Day Trips - PlanetWare".
  10. ^ Thomas Page. "Colossal 3,000-year-old statue unearthed from Cairo pit". CNN. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  11. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  12. ^ Aboulenein, Ahmed (2017-03-09). "Colossus probably depicting Ramses II found in Egypt". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  13. ^ Katz, Brigit. "Huge Statue of Egyptian Pharaoh Discovered in Cairo". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  14. ^ Sachs, Susan (26 December 2001). "Cairo Journal; A Tree Drooping With Its Ancient Burden of Faith - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  15. ^ "Virgin Mary's Tree | Egypt Tourism Authority". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  16. ^ "9 Things To Do in Al Matariyah, Egypt". virtualtourist.com. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  17. ^ Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) (2017). "2017 Census for Population and Housing Conditions". CEDEJ-CAPMAS. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  18. ^ "Said Samir". Said Samir. Archived from the original on August 21, 2007. [dead link]

30°7′46.08″N 31°18′26.94″E / 30.1294667°N 31.3074833°E / 30.1294667; 31.3074833

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