Kafr El Sheikh

Kafr El Sheikh is an Egyptian city and the capital of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, about 134 km north of Cairo, in the Nile Delta of lower Egypt. As of November 2006, the town had a population of around half- a million.Kafr El Sheikh was earlier known as Duminqun and was renamed after Sheikh Talha al-Tilmisani who died here in 1234.In 2006 the University of Kafr El Sheikh was established.Kafr El Sheikh is responsible for more than 40% of the total sea food production in Egypt.Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, which was once part of the Gharbia Governorate, was created in 1949. It was originally named Fuadiyah in honor of King Fuad I of Egypt. After the 1952 Revolution and the subsequent abolition of the monarchy, the governorate took the name of its capital city Kafr El Sheikh. This name, adopted in 1955, means “the village of the chief”.The area occupied today by the Kafr El Sheikh Governorate has been inhabited since ancient times and so it has a noteworthy number of archaeological sites, at Tell Metoubes, Fuwwah, Desouk, Tell Qabrit, and other settlements around Lake Burrulus. The capital of Lower Egypt, called “Buto”, is located at present-day Tell El Faraain (the Hill of the Pharaohs), near Desouk.