Tanta, Egypt طنطا
Nickname(s): El Badawy City
Tanta, Egypt Location in Lower Egypt
Coordinates: 30°47′N 31°0′E / 30.783°N 31°E / 30.783; 31Coordinates: 30°47′N 31°0′E / 30.783°N 31°E / 30.783; 31
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Gharbia
Population (2005)
• Total	1,100,000
Time zone	EST (UTC+2)

Tanta (Arabic: طنطا‎ Ṭanṭā) is a city in Egypt. It is the country's fifth largest populated area, with an estimated 429,000 inhabitants (2008).^[1] Tanta is located 94 km (58 mi) north of Cairo and 130 km (81 mi) southeast of Alexandria. The capital of the Gharbia Governorate, it is a centre for the cotton-ginning industry and the main railroad hub of the Nile Delta.

Overview[link]

Tanta is known for its sweets, eaten during the mulid (Arabic: المولد‎) festivals. The main streets are Al- Bahr(algeish) Street, Al-Galaa Street, Al-Nahaas Street, Hassan Radwan Street, Alnady street and Saeed Street. Tanta has cotton ginning factories and textile industries, and is also a university town (Tanta University since 1972)and an institute attached to the El-Azhar University in Cairo as well as the seat of a Metropolitan of the Coptic Church. This city comes to life in late October at the end of the cotton harvest. About two million people from around the Delta and other parts of the Arab world come for the Moulid of Sayid Ahmed el-Badawi, which is an eight day celebration. The moulid is centered around the Mosque and Tomb of Sayid Ahmed el Badawi. El Badawi was the founder of one of Egypt's largest Sufi orders called Badawiya. He was born in Morocco, but emigrated to Arabia. He was sent to Tanta in 1234 as a representative of the order from Iraq. He was given permission to start a new order in Tanta and it soon flourished. His tomb was destroyed in the mid-nineteenth century but another was built and is the center of the festival. During the festival many sugar-coated nuts called 'hubb el Azziz' ('seeds of the Beloved Prophet') are eaten. They have been considered a delicacy since ancient times. The Museum of Tanta contains collections from the present day back to Pharaonic times.

History[link]

Three annual festivals are held in Tanta in honor of Ahmad al-Badawi, a revered Sufi figure of the 13th century, who founded the El-Ahmadiah tariqah and is buried in the main mosque of the city (see Egyptian festivals).Ahmed Dawod

Climate[link]

Famous people born in Tanta[link]

• Kamal Amin (Arabic: كمال أمين ‎) (1923–1979) Egyptian Artist.
• Abdu Al-Hamouli (Arabic: عبده الحامولي‎) (1836–1901) Arab-Egyptian singer in the second half of the 1800s.
• Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary (Arabic: محمود خليل الحصري‎) (1917–1980) Renowned reciter of the Qur'an.
• Mohamed Fawzi (Arabic: محمد فوزي‎), (1918–1966) Egyptian composer, singer, and actor.
• Hoda Sultan (Arabic: هدى سلطان‎) (1925–2006) Egyptian singer and actress.
• Naima Akef (Arabic: نعيمة عاكف‎) (1939–1966) Egyptian bellydancer and movie superstar.
• Doria Shafiq (Arabic: درية شفيق‎) (1908–1975) One of the few who led the Women's Liberation Movement in Egypt in the early 1950s.
• Soheir al Morshedy (Arabic: سهير المرشدي‎) (1946 - ) Egyptian actress.
• Mustafa Kamil Pasha (Arabic: ) (1874–1908) Egyptian nationalist leader, orator, and editor.
• Gamil Shafik (Arabic: ) (1938 - ) Egyptian artist.
• Ahmed Hegazy (1936 - ) Popularly known as "Hegazy" - caricature artist.
• Nasr Abu Zayd "Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd" (1943–2010) Egyptian Qur'anic thinker and a liberal theologian in Islam.
• Ahmed Khaled Tawfik (1962 - ) Egyptian author.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tanta

• Nile Delta - Information on the region.
• University of Tanta.
• http://www.coptictanta.com.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharbia_Governorate.

Notable places[link]

Dr Ahmed Residence 15-El madares street

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. "Geographical information on Tanta, Egypt". http://www.fallingrain.com/world/EG/5/Tanta.html. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
• Detailed map of Egyptian towns and temples: http://unimaps.com/egypt/index.html

External links[link]

• Tanta Website(arabic)
• Photos of Tanta Mawlid

v t e Egypt's largest cities by population Cairo Alexandria Giza Shubra El-Kheima Port Said Suez El-Mahalla El-Kubra Luxor Asyut Mansoura Tanta Faiyum Zagazig Ismaïlia Kafr el-Dawwar Aswan Qena Damanhour Minya Sohag Beni Suef Shibin El Kom Banha Edfu Talkha Kafr el-Sheikh Mallawi Dikirnis Bilbeis Arish