Helwan

Helwan

Geographical location of Helwan

A vessel carved on a clay vase with the name of King Ni-Neith from Helwan

Helwan ( Arabic حلوان, DMG Ḥulwān  'sweet fountain'), also spelled Heluan , is an industrial city in Egypt , about 25 km south of Cairo or Maadi between the Mokattam hills on the banks of the Nile . It has about 643,327 inhabitants (as of 2006) and was temporarily the capital of the governorate of the same name from April 18, 2008 to April 14, 2011 . It can still be considered a suburb of Cairo.

history

Until the early 20th century, Helwan was a health resort with medicinal baths , including sulphurous thermal springs . Today heavy industries shape the cityscape, especially iron and steel smelting and textile and cement production as well as a large power station . But the automobile manufacturer El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company , which is one of the largest in the country, has its headquarters here. A railroad and road bridge over the Nile connects Helwan with Sakkara . Since July 26, 1975, the city has had Helwan University , which received substantial support from German development aid and whose predecessor was the Operations School , as well as an astronomical observatory at the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics .

Excavation sites

The area around Helwan is of archaeological and Egyptological interest. Not far from the city, the oldest graves in Egypt have been found, the total of around 10,000 burials originate for the most part from the pre-dynastic era and the early period (3300–2700 BC). In the tombs themselves the earliest royal names as well as countless vase carvings showing anonymous Serechs were discovered . In addition, mastabas from the second , third and fourth dynasties were excavated, which reveal various further developments in construction. The dog burials in graves 667.H5 and 680.H5 are remarkable .

Climate table

Helwan
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     6th   18th 8th     4th   20th 9     4th   24 11     2   28 14th     2   32 17th     0   35 20th     0   35 21st     0   35 21st     0   32 20th     1   30th 18th     3   25th 14th     6th   20th 10 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Helwan Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 18.4 20.4 23.7 28.4 32.1 34.9 34.9 34.5 32.4 29.5 24.7 19.8 O 27.8 Min. Temperature (° C) 8.1 9.1 11.1 14.2 17.4 19.9 20.8 21.2 20.2 17.9 14.1 9.8 O 15.3 Precipitation ( mm ) 6th 4th 4th 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 6th Σ 28 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 7.0 7.5 8.1 9.2 10.3 11.1 11.3 10.9 9.9 9.3 8.2 6.7 O 9.1 Rainy days ( d ) 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Σ 6th Humidity ( % ) 61 54 48 43 40 42 55 54 59 55 60 58 O 52.4 Source: wetterkontor.de

The Al-Aqrab prison

Al-Aqrab prison , officially called Tora Prison 992 Most-Security, is located in Helwan . The institution, notorious as a torture prison, where mainly opponents of the regime are detained, was established in 1993 under Interior Minister Habib al-Adli . The prison has 320 cells, five of which are used for "discipline" purposes.

literature

• Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto, Rosemarie Drenkhahn: Small Lexicon of Egyptology . 4th edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 123.
• Wolfgang Helck: Investigations into the thinite age. (= Egyptological treatises. Volume 46). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 , p. 44. 121.
• David Jeffreys: Helwan. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 367-68.
• Michel Rauch: Egypt . DuMont, Cologne / Luxemburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7701-7647-2 , p. 21. 336.
• Dan Richardson: Rough Guide to Egypt . Rough Guides, London 2003, ISBN 1-84353-050-3 , p. 191.
• Michael Rice: Egypt's Making: The Origins of Ancient Egypt 5000-2000 BC . Routledge, London 2003, ISBN 0-415-26875-3 , pp. 134-142.
• Zaki Youssef Saad: The royal excavations at Saqqara and Helwan (1941-1945) . In: Supplements aux Annales du Service des Antiquites de l'Égypte. 3. Cairo 1947.
• Helwan I. Excavations in the Early Dynastic Cemetery. Season 1997/98 . Studies on the archeology and history of ancient Egypt, Heidelberg 2005.

Web links

Wikivoyage: Helwan  - travel guide

• Helwan project of the University of Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edwin van den Brink, Christiane Köhler: Four Jars with Incised Serekh-Signs from Helwan Recently Retrieved from the Cairo Museum. In: Göttinger Miscellen. Contributions to the Egyptological discussion 187, 2002, p. 57 Fig. 2.
2. ↑ 2006 population and household census by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics Cairo ( Memento of December 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
3. ↑ al-aqrab-prison, the death camp of egypts dissidents, accessed on December 23, 2017