Damanhour

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

Damanhour دمنهور
Damanhour Opera House
Flag Seal
Damanhour Location in Egypt
Coordinates: 31°03′N 30°28′E
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Beheira
Population (2011)
• Total	242,700
Time zone	EST (UTC+2)

Damanhour (Arabic: دمنهور‎ Damanhūr, Egyptian: Dmỉ-n-Ḥr.w, Coptic: Ⲧⲙⲉⲛϩⲱⲣ, Greek: Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά Hermopolis Mikra) is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located 160 km (99 mi) northwest of Cairo, and 70 km (43 mi) E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta.

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 Egyptian 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). It is a Roman Catholic titular see.

In 1986, the population of Damanhour 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 Damanhour in 1946.

Etymology

Damanhour was known in the ancient Egyptian scripts by the name "Di Men Hor", which means the city of the god Hor or Horus, on the grounds that it was a center for the worship of this god. It was also known by other names: in the Egyptian texts, "Behdet"; in the Greek texts "Hermou Polis Mikra" (the lesser city of Hermes), translated to Latin by the Romans as "Hermopolis Parva"; the name "Obollenoboles" associated it with the Greek god Apollo, and it was also called "Tel Ballamon". Later, the Egyptians reverted to the old name, represented as "Temenhor", which after the Islamic conquest was reinterpreted in Arabic as "Damanhour", the present name.

Climate

Being located close to the Nile Delta that gives Damanhur a Mediterranean climate. The city gets average precipitation during winter, and rare rain during other seasons. Hail and frost are not unknown specifically during winter.

Tomb of Yaakov Abuhatzeira

The town contains the tomb of Yaakov Abuhatzeira (1805–1880) a Moroccan Rabbi who died there in 1880 while on a pilgrimage to Palestine. The site is visited each year by hundreds of devotees. The tomb is an official antiquity site protected by the government of Egypt. Some Egyptians have protested against permitting Jews to enter Egypt to make the annual pilgrimage to Rabbi Abuhatzeira's tomb.

Cultural references

Damanhour is the fictional home of the character Nebamon in the book Rise of the Golden Cobra, by Henry T. Aubin.

Damanhour name is used by the artist eco-village Federation of Damanhur in northern Italy.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–57). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. 

External links

• Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. "Geographical information on Damanhur, Egypt". http://www.fallingrain.com/world/EG/3/Damanhur.html. Retrieved 2008-03-30. 
• http://www.damanhour.5u.com Arabic script
• http://www.damanhour.5u.com/en.htm English script
• http://www.saeednet.4t.com live cam from damanhour
• "Hermopolis Parva". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07289b.htm.