Zeitoun ( meaning olives), also al-Zeitoun, is one of the eight districts that make up the Northern Area in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It is known for its

Marian apparitions A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are mor ...

at the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary of Zeitoun, reported in 1968–1971. Cairo - Al-Zeitoun District Map

History

Until the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the area consisted of cultivated fields and was known as '''Izbet al-Zeitoun'' (Olive Estate). It lay on the outskirts of the

Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (known archaically as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara Desert that is located east of the Nile River. It spans of northeastern Africa and is bordered by the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea to the east, a ...

just north of Cairo, and to the east of the then-new Heliopolis suburb. While Egypt was under British occupation, the Imperial School of Instruction was built there, and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

troops camped in the desert during the war. As Cairo expanded, Tawfiq Khalil Bey a real estate developer, bought land there and subdivided it into a suburb named Zeitoun. He also built a church that housed a mausoleum for his father, Khalil Ibrahim Pasha, in response to an appearance of The Virgin Mary. Years later it would be known for a series of Marian

apparitions Apparition may refer to: Supernatural *Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience * A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy *Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear ...

Notable people

It was the birthplace of

Fathia Nkrumah Helena Ritz Fathia Nkrumah ( ) (22 February 1932 – 31 May 2007), born Fathia Halim Rizk (), was an Egyptian, and the First Lady of the newly independent Ghana as the wife of Kwame Nkrumah, its first president. Fathia Nkrumah was born to a C ...

(born Fathia Rizk to a

Copt Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts pre ...

ic family), wife of

Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...

, the first President of

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

References

Shrines to the Virgin Mary Districts of Cairo {{Egypt-geo-stub

History

Notable people

See also

References