Qalyubia Governorate

Qalyubia Governorate (Arabic: محافظة القليوبية) lies directly north of Cairo, at the point where the Nile splits into its Delta branches. Its capital is Banha, and CAPMAS put the population of 6,103,039 in January 2023 across about 1,001 km². That makes it the most crowded governorate in Egypt outside the three city governorates, and its southern towns, Shubra El Kheima above all, are part of the Greater Cairo built-up area.

Towns and Villages in Qalyubia Governorate

Qalyubia is split into 16 municipal divisions. A markaz is a rural district that administers villages; a kism is a fully urban district. Four names appear twice, once as each, because the town has outgrown its rural district. CAPMAS publishes population only to division level, so the village list further down is drawn from the GeoNames gazetteer rather than from an official village register.

Main towns and cities

Figures are for the built-up place itself, not the administrative division.

• Shubrā al Khaymah (Shubra El Kheima) — 1,240,289
• Al Khuşūş — 488,904
• Banhā — 182,254
• Qalyub — 156,363
• Al-‘Ubūr (Obour City) — 138,987
• Al Qanāţir al Khayrīyah — 83,568
• Al Khānkah — 81,646
• Shibīn al Qanāţir — 73,711
• Ţūkh — 52,593
• Qahā — 36,225

Shubra El Kheima is the second most populous city in Egypt after Cairo and Alexandria’s core, and it is administratively separate from Shubra, which is a Cairo district on the other side of the governorate line.

Villages and hamlets (A–Z)

The 219 settlements below are the named villages and hamlets mapped in Qalyubia. A further 79 farm hamlets carrying the prefix Izbat or Ezbet are recorded but not listed individually. Names beginning Kafr, Mit, Nazlat, Kawm and Ezbet are the four common Delta village prefixes: hamlet, settlement, ridge-side hamlet and mound.

• Al ‘Abādilah
• Abū al Ghayţ
• Abū Za‘bal
• Ad Dayr
• Al Aḩrāz
• Ajhūr al Kubrá
• Ajhūr aş Şughrá
• Al Akhmīyīn
• Al ‘Amār al Kubrá
• ‘Arab al ‘Alīqāt
• ‘Arab al ‘Alīqāt al Baḩrīyah
• ‘Arab al Muqābilah
• ‘Arab ar Raml
• ‘Arab aş Şawāliḩah
• ‘Arab at Turbah
• ‘Arab Juhaynah wa aş Şawāliḩ
• Al ‘Aţţārah
• Bahādah
• Bahtīm
• Balaqs
• Al Baqqāshīn
• Al Barādi‘ah
• Barqaţā
• Barshūm al Kubrá
• Barshūm aş Şughrá
• Bāsūs
• Baţā
• Batamdah
• Bījām
• Biltān
• Biqayrah
• Damallū
• Dandanā
• Dijwī
• El-Sa‘âida
• Farsīs
• Al Fārūqīyah
• Ḩallābah
• Al Ḩaşāfah
• Al Hassānīyah
• Al Ḩişşah
• Al Ḩizānīyah
• Ikyād Dijwī
• Imyāy
• Isnīt
• Al Ja‘āfirah
• Jamjarah al Jadīdah
• Jamjarah al Qadīmah
• Jazīrat al Aḩrār
• Jazīrat an Najdī
• Jazīrat Billī
• Kafr ‘Abd as Sayyid Nawwār
• Kafr ‘Ābid
• Kafr Abū Dhikrī
• Kafr Abū Jum‘ah
• Kafr Abū Zahrah
• Kafr ad Dayr
• Kafr al ‘Arab
• Kafr al Arba‘īn
• Kafr al Fuqahā’
• Kafr al Ḩaddādīn
• Kafr al Ḩaşāfah
• Kafr al Ḩişşah
• Kafr al Ḩiwālah
• Kafr al Jammāl
• Kafr al Jazzār
• Kafr al Walajā
• Kafr an Nakhlah
• Kafr ar Rijālāt
• Kafr as Sabīl
• Kafr aş Şuḩbī
• Kafr ash Shahāwī Khāţir
• Kafr ash Shawbak
• Kafr ash Shaykh ‘Āmir
• Kafr ash Shaykh Ibrāhīm
• Kafr ash Shaykh Marwān
• Kafr ash Shaykhah Sālimah
• Kafr ash Shimūt
• Kafr ash Shurafā
• Kafr ash Shurafā’ al Gharbī
• Kafr ash Shurafā’ al Qiblī
• Kafr at Turjumān
• Kafr ‘Aţā’ Allāh
• Kafr ‘Azab Ghunaym
• Kafr Baţā
• Kafr Fānūs
• Kafr Farsīs
• Kafr Ḩamdī
• Kafr Ḩasan Sa‘d
• Kafr ‘Ibyān
• Kafr ‘Ilaym
• Kafr ‘Ilwān
• Kafr Kūrdī
• Kafr Manāqir
• Kafr Manşūr
• Kafr Muways
• Kafr Rajab
• Kafr Ramādah
• Kafr Riḑwān
• Kafr Sa‘d
• Kafr Sa‘d Buḩayrī
• Kafr Şalīb
• Kafr Salīm
• Kafr Sandanhūr
• Kafr Sharaf ad Dīn
• Kafr Shibīn
• Kafr Shūmān
• Kafr Sindiwah
• Kafr Sulaymān al Wirr
• Kafr Ţāḩā’
• Kafr Ţaḩlah
• Kafr Tişfā
• Kafr Ţuḩūrīyah
• Al Kawm al Aḩmar
• Kawm al Aţrūn
• Kawm as Samn
• Kawm Battīn
• Kawm Ishfīn
• Khalwat al Barādi‘ah
• Khalwat ash Shaykh ‘Uthmān
• Al Kharaqānīyah
• Al Khazzān
• Khilwat ‘Abd an Nabī
• Khilwat Sinhirah
• Al Manāyil
• Al Manayyah
• Al Manshīyah
• Al Manshīyah al Jadīdah
• Manshīyat al ‘Amār
• Manşūrat Nāmūl
• Manţī
• Marşafā
• Mazra ‘et el-Gebel el-Aṣfar
• Minshāt az Zahwī
• Minshāt Dhi’āb
• Minţay
• Minyat as Sibā‘
• Minyat Shibīn
• Mīt ad Durrayj
• Mīt al ‘Aţţār
• Mīt al Ḩūfiyīn
• Mīt ‘Āşim
• Mīt Ḩalfā
• Mīt Kinānah
• Mīt Namā
• Mīt Rāḑī
• Mujūl
• Al Munīrah
• Al Munsha’ah al Kubrá
• Al Munsha’ah aş Şughrá
• Munsha’at Shubrā Hāris
• Al Murayj
• Mushtuhur
• Naj‘ Ghānim Abū Ra’s
• Nāmūl
• Nawá
• Nāy
• Nazlat Abū Darāhim
• Nazlat ar Rawāshidah
• Nazlat ‘Arab Juhaynah
• Nazlat as Sibā‘āt
• Nazlat ash Sharāqiwah
• Nazlat ‘Awdah Ḩammūd
• Nazlat Buşaylān
• Nazlat Hawāwī
• Nazlat Kafr ‘Ilaym
• Nazlat Şāliḩ Sulaymān
• Nazlat Salmān Zā’id
• Nazlat Wālī Rāshid
• Nişf Atrīb
• Nūb Ţāḩā’
• Nuqbās
• Al Qalaj
• Qalamā
• Qalyūb al Maḩaţţah
• Qaranfīl
• Qarqashandah
• Al Qashshīsh
• Ar Ramlah
• Aş Şabbāḩ wa Kafr ash Shahīd
• As Sadd
• Aş Şafā
• Aş Şaffayn
• Aş Şāliḩīyah
• As Salmānīyah
• Şanāfīr
• Sandanhūr
• Shalaqān
• Ash Sharqāwīyah al Baḩrīyah
• Ash Sharqāwīyah al Qadīmah
• Ash Shawbak
• Shiblanjah
• Ash Shimūt
• Shubrā al Balad
• Shubrā Shihāb
• Shubrāhāris
• Ash Shuqr
• Sîdi Sanad
• As Sifānīyah
• Sindibīs
• Sindiwah
• Sindiyūn
• Sinhirah
• Siryāqūs
• As Siyafā
• Ţaḩā’ Nūb
• Ţaḩlah
• Tall Banī Tamīm
• Ţanān
• Ţanţ al Jazīrah
• Tirsā
• Tişfā
• Ţuḩūrīyah
• ‘Urbân Fôda
• Warwarah
• Zahr Shurb
• Az Zamrūnīyah
• Zāwiyat an Najjār
• Zāwiyat Sīdī Sanad

Geography

Qalyubia begins where the Nile divides at El Qanater El Khayreya, about 20 km north of Cairo, and runs north between the Damietta and Rosetta branches. All of it is cultivated Delta floodplain; there is no desert and no coast.

The barrages at El Qanater, finished in 1861, still regulate irrigation for the whole Delta. The Ismailia Canal crosses the east of the governorate, and the Cairo–Alexandria agricultural road runs its length.

It borders Cairo to the south, Giza to the south-west, Monufia to the west, Gharbia to the north and Sharqia to the east.

Demographics

The 2017 census counted 5,627,420 residents. The January 2023 estimate of 6,103,039 implies growth of about 1.4 percent a year.

The split is roughly half urban, half rural, but the line is blurred: villages in Qalyub and Khanka marakiz are physically continuous with Cairo’s northern edge. Average density is about 6,100 people per km², the highest of any Egyptian governorate that still farms.

Economy and Local Life

Shubra El Kheima is one of Egypt’s oldest industrial zones, with textiles, spinning and weaving, chemicals, glass and electrical goods. Abu Zaabal has fertiliser and steel plants, and Qaha has a long-established food canning works.

The marakiz grow citrus, grapes, guava and vegetables for the Cairo market, and Qalyubia is Egypt’s main producer of table grapes. Banha is the administrative and university town; Obour City, built from the 1980s, houses a large wholesale market that supplies much of Cairo’s fruit and vegetable trade.

History

Banha stands near ancient Athribis, a Delta capital whose mound, Tell Atrib, sits at the northern edge of the modern town. Qalyub gave the governorate its name and was an important stop on the medieval road north from Cairo.

The governorate took its present form in the 19th century. Muhammad Ali began the Delta Barrages at El Qanater in 1833 to control irrigation; they were completed under Said Pasha in 1861 and remain the reason the district exists in its current shape. Industrial Shubra El Kheima grew from the 1930s onwards as Cairo spread north.

Getting There

Banha is about 48 km north of Cairo, roughly an hour by road. The main Cairo–Alexandria railway runs through Banha, and Banha Station is a junction for the Damietta and Port Said lines; trains from Ramses Station take about 40 minutes.

The Cairo–Alexandria Agricultural Road, the Cairo–Benha Free Road and the Ring Road all serve the governorate. Cairo Metro Line 1 terminates at El Marg, on the Cairo side of the boundary with Khusus.

FAQ

What is the capital of Qalyubia Governorate?

Banha, about 48 km north of Cairo. It is the seat of the governor and of Benha University.

How many villages are in Qalyubia Governorate?

Seven marakiz administer the rural villages. The gazetteer maps 219 named villages and hamlets plus about 79 smaller farm hamlets; CAPMAS reports population only to markaz and kism level.

What is the population of Qalyubia Governorate?

6,103,039 in January 2023, on the CAPMAS estimate. The 2017 census counted 5,627,420.

Is Shubra El Kheima in Cairo?

No. Shubra El Kheima is in Qalyubia, though it is physically joined to Cairo and counted as part of Greater Cairo. With 1,240,289 residents it is the largest city in the governorate.

What is the postal code for Banha?

13511. Postal codes across Qalyubia start with 13.

Which governorates border Qalyubia?

Cairo, Giza, Monufia, Gharbia and Sharqia.