- Banī Suwayf
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▪ Egyptalso spelled Beni Suefcity, capital of Banī Suwayf muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northern Upper Egypt. It is an important agricultural trade centre on the west bank of the Nile River, 70 miles (110 km) south of Cairo.In the 9th and 10th dynasties (c. 2160–2040 BC), Heracleopolis (modern Ihnāsiyat al-Madīnah), 10 miles west of the modern city, was the capital of kings who ruled Lower and Middle Egypt. During the 1st millennium BC a Libyan family settled there and gained sovereignty over all of Egypt, founding the 22nd dynasty (c. 950–c. 730 BC). Later, though losing political importance, it remained an important city. In later centuries Banī Suwayf became the chief town of the second province of Upper Egypt, attaining special prominence under the Turkish governor and the autonomous ruler Muḥammad ʿAlī (ruled 1805–48). Banī Suwayf's industries, mostly agriculturally related, include flour milling, cotton ginning, and textile manufacturing. Alabaster is quarried near the capital. Perennial irrigation water is supplied by the large Baḥr Yūsuf Canal. It is on the main rail line along the Nile; a branch railroad connects it to the Al-Fayyūm oasis complex of agricultural settlements. The oldest mosque, Jāmiʿ al-Baḥr, has a shrine that is locally venerated. Pop. (1996) 172,032.▪ governorate, Egyptmuḥāfaẓah (governorate), lying along the Nile River in northern Upper Egypt, with an extension into the Western Desert at its southern end. Al-Fayyūm governorate lies to the west and north and Al-Minyā to the south. Its cultivated, settled area consists mainly of a strip of the Nile River valley floodplain, extending about 50 miles (80 km) north-south and 15 miles in width at its widest point, near Banī Suwayf city. Because the river throughout history has eroded away the eastern bank, it now embraces only a narrow, gravelly plain terminating abruptly below the bluffs of the Eastern Desert. In 1964 Banī Suwayf governorate pioneered a nationally supervised cooperative-farming scheme in which scattered land holdings were consolidated into large units. Cotton, grains, beans, and sugarcane are the principal crops, and chickens and pigeons are also raised. The capital, Banī Suwayf, is a regional market. In the Eastern Desert alabaster is quarried, and there are iron-ore deposits in the desert to the west.Among the governorate's antiquities are the 3rd-dynasty (c. 2686–2613 BC) pyramid of Huni at Maydūm, and the ruins of ancient Heracleopolis lie near the village of Ihnāsiyat al-Madīnah, west of Banī Suwayf city near the Baḥr Yūsuf, an irrigation canal, which turns north of the site into Al-Fayyūm governorate. The Cairo–Aswān railway stops at Banī Suwayf city, from where a branch runs into Al-Fayyūm. Area 510 square miles (1,322 square km). Pop. (2004 est.) 2,208,082.
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Universalium. 2010.
