Kafr al-Shaykh

▪ Egypt

also spelled  Kafr el-Sheikh  

      town, capital of Kafr al-Shaykh muḥāfaẓah (governorate) of the central Nile River delta, Lower Egypt, bordering the Mediterranean. The town is situated in a fertile plain about 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Ṭanṭā. Industries in the town include cotton-processing plants and factories producing cigarettes, rice strawboard, rice chaff oil, and chemical products. A former royal palace of King Farouk I (reigned 1936–52) is located there. The city has rail links to Rosetta and Cairo by a branch connecting the main rail system at Al-Maḥallah al-Kubrā. Pop. (1996) 124,819.

▪ governorate, Egypt

also spelled  Kafr el-Sheikh 

      muḥāfaẓah (governorate) in the central Nile delta, Lower Egypt, with the Rosetta Branch of the river to the west and ad-Daqahlīyah governorate to the east. It was created in 1949 out of al-Gharbīyah governorate, just south, and named Fuʾādīyah mudūīyah (province) after Fuʾād I, sultan (1917–22) and king (1922–36) of Egypt. After the Egyptian monarchy was overthrown in 1952, the area was renamed in 1955. Buḥayrat al-Burullus, which is a large saltwater coastal lagoon about 35 miles (56 km) long and is separated from the sea by a narrow sandbar, is at the north. Fed by canals and minor branches of the Nile, the lagoon is bordered by extensive salt marshes from which large tracts have been reclaimed for rice cropping; the fishing village of Balṭīm is on the eastern shore.

      The region's principal crops, which are irrigated by the Ziftā barrage on the Damietta Branch of the Nile, are cotton, rice, corn (maize), and wheat. Sugar beets were introduced in the early 1980s, and fish farming was also begun. Important market towns having industries linked with agriculture (cotton ginning, rice milling, and sugar beet processing) are Disūq and Biyalā. Other industries are carried on in the capital, Kafr al-Shaykh. The coastal lighthouse located north of the east end of the Burullus lagoon was erected by order of Khedive (viceroy) Ismāʿīl Pasha (ruled 1863–79) as one of four associated with the construction of the Suez Canal. Area 1,327 square miles (3,437 square km). Pop. (2004 est.) 2,541,124.

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