Agouza () is one of nine municipal districts that form

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

city, which is part of the

Greater Cairo The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...

metropolis, on the western bank of the river

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. It is situated between 6th October Bridge and 15 May Bridge and south of

Imbaba Imbaba ( ', ) is a working-class neighbourhood in northern Giza, Egypt, located west of the Nile and northwest of and near Gezira Island and downtown Cairo, within the Giza Governorate. The district is located in the historic upper Nile Delta, and ...

. Most of it is

colloquially Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation am ...

known as Mohandessin, a 1950s planned community originally called Madinat al-Awqaf, sub-divided in to a number of profession-based housing cooperatives, one of which was for engineers (''mohandissin''). The Egyptian National Circus and the adjoining Balloon Theater are on the Agouza Corniche. The

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

main centre in

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 ...

is also on the Corniche.

History

Agouza used to be a mostly royal and state-owned agricultural estate held under ''

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

'' (endowment) until the early 20th Century with villages, such as Mit Okba, and '' 'izbas'' (hamlets) such as al-Hutiyya. From the 1930s the Ministry of Awqaf piloted plans to turn the estates into a new suburban district of Cairo as

Dokki Dokki ( , is one of nine districts that make up Giza city, which is part of Greater Cairo, in Egypt. Dokki is situated on the western bank of the Nile, directly across from Downtown Cairo. It is a vital residential and commercial district wi ...

to its south flourished. In 1948, its chief architect Mahmoud Riad set out the final plan of Madinat al-Awqaf, with plots being advertised for sale that year. Much of this development along with smaller developments to its south made up the Wasat (middle) district in the city of

, before being divided in 1997 into the districts of Agouza (most of which is Madinat al-Awqaf/Mohandessin) and

, (the other half of Madinat al-Aqaf plus other developments) with most of Agouza known colloquially as Mohandeseen, even though it is a smaller non-administrative shiakha (census block) within it (see Demographics below).

Origin of the name

There are two contesting stories explaining the origin of Agouza's name. The first is that in the 1940s and 1950s, an old woman (''agouza'' in Arabic) sat alongside the Corniche and sold coffee to cars passing by. When people wanted to meet up, they would say "I'm at the agouza," and the name just stuck. The story is unverified however. The second, perhaps more likely story, is that the name refers to Nazly Hanem, the wife of Sherif Pacha who was Prime Minister at the time of Mohamed Ali in the 1800s. At the age of 80 she decided to build a mosque to fulfill her husband's wish after his death. Given her old age people referred to the mosque as ''Al Agouza'' which later became the name of the whole district.

Nawal Street

After Abdel Rahim Sabri Pasha's daughter Nawal died at the age of 6, he named his palace (now the Military Nasr Academy) after her, which led to its street being named Nawal Street.

Demographics and sub-districts

The district of Agouza had a population of 278,479 in 2017, 143,681 male and 134,798 female. It is made of six ''shiakhas'':

Notable places

Hospitals

* Al-Agouza Hospital

Libraries

* 6 October Public Library

References

{{coord, 30, 03, 08, N, 31, 12, 56, E, type:landmark, display=title Districts of Giza