Middle Egypt

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Middle Egypt is the modern name for the part of Egypt on both sides of the Nile , which stretches from today's Bani Suwaif to today's Qina . It forms the northern part of ancient Egyptian Upper Egypt , which nowadays only characterizes its southern part. Occasionally the area south of this as far as Luxor is also included.

It includes the governorates of Bani Suwaif, al-Minya , Asyut and Sauhadsch . Lower Egypt joins in the north and Upper Egypt in the south .

The region has been settled since predynastic times . Numerous monuments prove the importance in ancient Egyptian times. With Beni Hasan , Dair al-Berscha , Mair and Asyut, the most important royal tombs of the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom are located here . South of al-Minya is Amarna, the former capital of Akhenaten at the end of the 18th dynasty .

Furthermore, the most important Coptic monasteries in Egypt are located in this area , the majority of the Coptic Christians are settled here. The important monastery complexes include Bawit (near Asyut), the White and Red Monasteries west of Sohag and Dair al-Muharraq south of Mallawi .

Middle Egypt achieved notoriety as the center of the radical Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1990s; especially in Asyut. Most of the attacks on tourists and security forces took place there, which caused tourism in this region to collapse. Only since the end of the 1990s has the area been considered safe again, although this can only be ensured with a massive police presence.