Helwan

Helwan

Helwan (Arabic: حلوان Ḥelwān, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}IPA: [ħelˈwæːn], Coptic: ϩⲁⲗⲟⲩⲁⲛ, romanized: Halouan[1]) is a suburban district in the Southern Area of Cairo, Egypt.[2] The area of Helwan witnessed prehistoric, ancient Egyptian, Roman and Muslim era activity. More recently it was designated as a city until as late as the 1960s,[3] before it became contiguous with the city of Cairo and was incorporated as a district. For a brief period between April 2008 and April 2011 it was redesignated as a city, and served as the capital of the now defunct Helwan Governorate that was split from Cairo and Giza governorates, before being re-incorporated back into them.[4] The kism of Helwan had a population of 521,239 in the 2017 census.[5] 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,[citation needed] 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.[6]