Tanta Attractions
Tanta, the lively capital of the Governorate of Gharbiya, within the Rosetta and Damietta arms of the Nile, lies between Cairo and Alexandria in the heart of the Nile Delta. The principal commercial center of the Delta (particularly for cotton), it is also one of the most important traffic junctions in Egypt.
Tanta has cotton ginning factories and textile industries, and is also a university town, with an institute attached to the El-Azhar University in Cairo and a medical school associated with Alexandria University, as well as the seat of a Metropolitan of the Coptic Church.
Tanta has cotton ginning factories and textile industries, and is also a university town, with an institute attached to the El-Azhar University in Cairo and a medical school associated with Alexandria University, as well as the seat of a Metropolitan of the Coptic Church.
Mosque of Sheikh el-Said Ahmed el-Bedawi
The town's most notable building is the 19th C. Mosque of Sheikh el-Said Ahmed el-Bedawi built by Abbas I and Ismail Pasha on the site of an earlier mosque. It stands over the tomb of a much revered and very popular Egyptian holy man, and attracts large numbers of pilgrims, particularly on his birthday in August. Ahmed el-Bedawi, born in Fez in the 12th C., settled in Tanta on his way back from a pilgrimage to Mecca. Frequent miraculous cures are said to have been wrought at his tomb. The celebration of his birthday is a lively and colorful popular festival and fair.
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Zifta Dam
Some 15mi/25km east of Tanta is the Zifta Dam on the Damietta arm of the Nile, built in 1903, with 50 sluice gates 16ft/5m wide. Very similar in construction to the Asyut Dam, it regulates the irrigation of the governorates of Gharbiya, Daqahliya and Sharqiya in the eastern Delta.
