Current Time in Banī Suwayf, Egypt

Bani Suwayf stands on the west bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt, about one hundred and twenty kilometres south of Cairo, at the point where the fertile valley is squeezed between the Eastern Desert and the depression of the Faiyum. The city is the capital of a governorate of the same name, and its setting is the classic landscape of the Nile, a narrow ribbon of green fields, palm groves and villages hemmed in by tawny desert cliffs. Summers are extremely hot and dry, winters mild and pleasant.

Roughly two hundred and fifty thousand people live in the city, with several million in the governorate as a whole. Cotton has long been the mainstay of the local economy, and the district is known for its textiles and carpets, alongside sugar, cement, chemicals, food processing and the cultivation of wheat, maize and dates. Cement plants in the desert to the east and a growing industrial zone have added to the city's importance, and its position on the corridor between Cairo and the south makes it a significant transport point.

The area has been inhabited since the earliest periods of Egyptian history. Nearby stands Meidum, where the pharaoh Sneferu built a pyramid that partially collapsed, leaving a strange tower-like core rising above a mound of rubble, a monument that reveals much about the development of pyramid building. The ancient city of Herakleopolis Magna, now Ihnasya el-Medina, lies a short distance away and served as the capital of Egypt during the troubled First Intermediate Period, when its rulers contested control of the country with Thebes. Coptic Christianity took deep root here, and the region contains ancient churches and monasteries. The modern town developed in the nineteenth century as a provincial capital and cotton market under Muhammad Ali.

Visitors come chiefly for the archaeology. Meidum and Ihnasya can both be reached in a morning, and the desert road east leads towards the Red Sea monasteries of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, founded in the fourth century and still occupied by monks. To the north-west lies the Faiyum, with its lake, waterwheels, Greco-Roman sites and the fossil whale valley of Wadi al-Hitan. In the city itself, the corniche along the Nile, the covered markets and the mosques and churches of the old quarter reward a stroll.

Life here follows the rhythms of the river and the agricultural calendar, with village markets, Sufi festivals, Coptic feasts and the great Muslim holidays. The cuisine is hearty and rural, featuring fuul, taameya, molokhia, stuffed pigeon and fresh bread baked in clay ovens.

Trains and buses run constantly along the Nile valley to Cairo and Upper Egypt, and desert highways connect to the Red Sea coast. Beni Suef University is a large public institution with faculties of medicine, engineering and archaeology, giving the city a substantial student population.

Bani Suwayf is important as a provincial capital of Upper Egypt and as a base for exploring some of the country's oldest monuments.