The Mokattam ( , also spelled Muqattam), also known as the Mukattam Mountain or Hills, is the name of an

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 ...

plateau as well as the district built over it in the Southern Area of

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 ...

Etymology

The Arabic name ''Mokattam'' means cut off or broken off and apparently refers to how the low range of hills is divided into three sections. Paul Casanova advocated the idea that it is a corruption of an older name Maqaduniya (), mentioned in Medieval Arabic sources, which he derives from ''Makhetow'' (), one of the names of Memphis.

Landform

The Mokattam Formation, named after the hills, outcrops throughout the plateau. The highest segment is a low mountain landform called Moqattam Mountain. In the past the exposed Mokattam Formation was an important ancient Egyptian quarry site for

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, used in the construction of

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

and

pyramids A pyramid () is a Nonbuilding structure, structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a Pyramid (geometry), pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid ca ...

Settlement

The hills are in the region of ancient

Fustat Fustat (), also Fostat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, though it has been integrated into Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Mus ...

, the new capital founded by

'Amr ibn al-'As Amr ibn al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi (664) was an Arab commander and companion of Muhammad who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in and wa ...

after the

Muslim conquest of Egypt The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long Roman Egypt, Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broa ...

in 642 CE. The

Zabbaleen The Zabbaleen ( ', ) is a word which literally means "garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic.Assaad, Ragui. (1996) Formalizing the Informal? The Transformation of Cairo's Refuse Collection System. ''Journal of Planning Education & Research'', vol. 16 ...

people, who are an integral part of collecting and processing Cairo's

municipal solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the American English, United States and rubbish in British English, Britain, is a List of waste types, waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. ...

, live in

Manshiyat Naser Manshiyat Nasser ( ; , sometimes called "the Christianity, Christian suburb", ) is one of the nine districts that make up the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It covers 5.54 square kilometers, and was home to 258,372 people in the 2017 census. It b ...

Garbage City Manshiyat Nasser ( ; , sometimes called "the Christianity, Christian suburb", ) is one of the nine districts that make up the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It covers 5.54 square kilometers, and was home to 258,372 people in the 2017 census. It b ...

, at the foot of the Mokattam Hills. EMAAR Misr, the Egyptian subsidiary of the Dubai-based real estate organization

Emaar Properties Emaar Properties (or simply Emaar) is an Emirati real estate development company located in the United Arab Emirates. The two largest shareholders are Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the UAE's sovereign wealth fund Investment Corpor ...

built Uptown Cairo in Mokattam.

Municipal district and population

The Moqattam district lies in the Southern Area of Cairo, Egypt. In 2017, it had 224,138 residents in its 10 shiakhas:

Sports

In Mokkattam, like other places in Cairo, the locals support either

Al Ahly SC Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an List of football clubs in Egypt, Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional Association football, football team which curren ...

or El Zamalek, yet Mokkattam itself has a football team that plays in the Egyptian third division called Misr Insurance (Masr Le El Tammeen). Moreover, the top division club Al Mokawloon Al Arab SC actually lies on the border of the Mokkattam mountain. Un coin du Mokatam

Simon the Tanner

Mokattam is widely known in the

Coptic Church The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

, as it is believed that the mountain has moved up and down when the Coptic

Pope Abraham of Alexandria Pope Abraham of Alexandria was the 62nd Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He is considered a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church. He is also referred to as Efrem or Ephrem.Cerulli, Enrico. 1943. ''Il libro etiopico dei ...

, following the advice of Saint Simon the Tanner, performed a mass near it in order to prove to the Caliph that the Gospel is true when it says that "if one has faith like a grain of mustard one can move a mountain". The name "Broken-off Mountain" may be related to the fact that in the story the mountain breaks off from the underlying rock and rises up, before coming back down again.BBC Newshour The Angel of Garbage City
October 11, 2014, 20:00 UTC.

References

External links

Al Mokattam Official Website
{{Districts of Cairo, Cairo Mountains of Egypt Geography of Cairo Geography of Egypt Districts of Greater Cairo