Maghagha ( ar, مغاغة) is a city in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, located on the west bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

. It is the northernmost city in the

Minya Governorate Minya Governorate ( ar, محافظة المنيا ') is one of the governorates of Egypt, governorates of Upper Egypt. Its capital city, Minya, Egypt, Minya, is located on the left bank of the Nile River. Etymology The name originates from the c ...

History

The old names of the town were ''Nimoui'' (, from ) and ''Gazirat al-Hagar'' ().ابن مماتي ص197 In May 1963, the ferry boat Adel capsized here, killing 206 people. In June 2007, 11-year-old schoolgirl Budour Ahmed Shaker died at a private clinic in Maghagha after an excessive dose of

anesthesia Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), ...

while undergoing the procedure of

female genital cutting Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

, sparking widespread protests and prompting the Egyptian government to outlaw the practice by closing a legal loophole allowing it to be performed for "documented health reasons". The ban instead drove the practice underground, with doctors charging higher fees to compensate for the risk of being prosecuted. The 1885 Census of Egypt recorded Maghagha (as ''Maghaghah'') as a

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

in under the district of El Fashn in

; at that time, the population of the town was 3,126 (1,548 men and 1,578 women). In 1888, a travel guide by the British publishing house John Murray described Maghagha as possessing one of the most important

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

factories in Egypt, with large tracts around the town being devoted to the cultivation of

cane sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

, although the amount of sugar produced at the factory had diminished in recent years. There was a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

connecting Maghagha to

Aba al-Waqf Aba al-Waqf ar, أبا الوقف ') is a village in the markaz of Maghagha in Minya Governorate, Egypt. It is about 6 miles (10km) south of Maghagha, and 2 miles (3km) west of the Nile. Etymology The name of the village comes from Egyptian ...

and

Beni Mazar Beni Mazar () is a rural town in Egypt. It is located in the Minya Governorate, on the west bank of the Nile. The older name of the town is Shinwada ( or شِنُوَدة) which comes from Sahidic (Bohairic: ϣⲓⲛⲟⲩⲟϯ) meaning "kailyard ...

; it was used to transport cane sugar to

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in pro ...

s during the harvest season. The guide also described several ancient ruins in the area, with a cemetery for dog mummies. Just upstream from Maghagha was a rock called the ''Hagar es-Salaam'', or "stone of welfare", in the Nile near the shore. Local boatmen claimed that no journey down the Nile would be prosperous until passing this rock.

Villages

*Ashnin *Beni Khaled *Bortbat El Gabal *Dahmro *

Deir el-Garnus Deir el-Garnus ( ar, دير الجرنوس) is a village in Upper Egypt near Maghagha. It is located in Minya Governorate on the shore of Bahr Yussef and has a predominantly Coptic Christian population of 6 504 people. Etymology ''Deir'' means " ...

*El A'bor *El Kom El Akhdar *Malatya *Mayana El Wakf *Sharona *Tanbdy

Economy

Maghagha's souk is one of only two in Egypt to be government-owned (the other is in

Shibin el-Kom Shibin El Kom ( ar, شبين الكوم , colloquially shortened to ''Shibin'') is a city in Egypt's Nile Delta, and the capital of the Monufia Governorate. Etymology The city was previously known as Shaybin as-Ssarya () the first part of wh ...

), with fixed rental fees for vendors. Other markets in Maghagha district are privately owned, with varying rental rates. These markets are mostly held on different days, to reduce competition with one another and allow merchants to attend several different ones in the same week. To that end, some of the markets have been rescheduled in the past: for example, the souk in Bani Khalid was established in the 1940s and was originally held on Sundays. However, in the mid-1970s, improved transportation led to the market being rescheduled to Tuesdays, to reduce competition with the market in Saqola. The markets that are held on the same day owe their coexistence to distance and size factors. For example, there are three souks held on Thursday in the district: in Maghagha itself as well as in the villages of Bani Wallims (18km from Maghagha) and Shim al-Basal al-Bahariya (14km). The latter two souks are smaller ones (or ''suwayqa''s) with no more than 70 vendors; they mostly cater to the needs of local residents. The following table shows the date and location of the various souks in Maghagha district:

Notable people

Taha Hussein Taha Hussein (, ar, طه حسين; November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a figurehead for the Nahda, Egyptian Renaissance and the modernism, modernist movem ...

, 20th century writer and intellectual associated with the

Nahda The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Leb ...

and

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

movements * Ahmed Hassan, former footballer * Hakim, pop singer

References

{{Cities of Egypt Populated places in Minya Governorate