Description : Helwan (Arabic: حلوان Ḥelwān, Coptic: ϩⲁⲗⲟⲩⲁⲛ, romanized: Halouan) is a city in Egypt and part of Greater Cairo, on the bank of the Nile, opposite the ruins of Memphis. Originally a southern suburb of Cairo, it served as the capital of the now defunct Helwan Governorate from April 2008 to April 2011, after which it was re-incorporated into the Cairo Governorate. The kism of Helwan had a population of 643,327 in the 2006 census. The Helwan and Isnian cultures of the late Epipalaeolithic, and their Ouchata retouch methods for creating microlithic tools may have contributed to the development of the Harifian cultural assemblage of the Sinai, which may have introduced Proto-Semitic languages into the Middle East. Around 3000 to 2600 BC, there was a cemetery near Helwan serving the city of Memphis. The city of Helwan was founded in 689 CE as Fustat's temporary replacement as the capital of Umayyad Egypt by its governor Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, who died in the new city. The Khedivial Astronomical Observatory was built here 1903–1904, and was used to observe Halley's comet. Egypt's oldest and largest private psychiatric clinic, the Behman Hospital, was constructed here in 1939. During the early part of the 20th century, the city was the site of RAF Helwan, a major British airfield, which was later used by the Egyptian Air Force. In 1959 Helwan was chosen to serve as a site of a major industrial city, as part of President Gamal Abdel Nasser's attempts to industrialize Egypt. Throughout the 1960s, it developed into a massive steelworks zone, with numerous automobile factories being built. The site continues to use electricity from the Aswan Dam and iron ore from Egypt's western deserts. Helwan was gradually transformed into a mass suburb of Cairo for the working class. In April 2008, the Helwan Governorate was split from the Cairo Governorate. It encompassed most of the suburbs, new compounds and villages located in the southern part of Cairo. The city of Helwan became the capital of the new governorate. Following the dissolution of the Helwan Governorate in April 2011, the city of Helwan was reincorporated into the Cairo Governorate.
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