# Qism Helwan

Helwan Qism (Arabic: قسم وحي حلوان) is one of the old, upscale, ancient districts of South Cairo on the Nile shore, the official population of Helwan District, according to the estimated census in the year 2023 is about 557,620 people.

## History

Helwan was a governorate of the same name. God blessed Helwan with mineral and sulfurous waters, which made it play an important role in the field of tourism and attracting foreign and Arab tourists throughout the previous years, due to the great importance of these waters in treating many incurable diseases.
Helwan was famous for its sulfur springs and the importance of Helwan spring waters became apparent during the reign of Abbas Pasha I, when some army men were infected with scabies and when they washed themselves with the spring waters, their symptoms disappeared and they returned healthy.
Due to the importance of this distinguished location due to its location at the intersection of the Nile and desert roads and the large area occupied by the city of Helwan, it included within its walls, in addition to the various tourist and therapeutic places, a huge group of industrial fortresses (civilian and military), which ultimately made it truly represent a fortress of tourism and industry together. It is also considered one of the most important neighborhoods of the capital of Egypt for the tourist and therapeutic services it provides to citizens and its guests and the economic resources its factories return.
Helwan is one of the oldest cities in Egypt and was originally a Pharaonic city and contains the oldest water dam in history in the Wadi Hof area, in Wadi Jarawi south of Tebbin in the pre-dynastic era.
But it disappeared over the ages until it was revived by Abdul Aziz bin Marwan, the governor of Egypt before the Umayyads and he had left Fustat the capital at that time heading south after the epidemic spread in Fustat and he liked Helwan so he made it the temporary capital of the state of Egypt and built houses and palaces and planted orchards in it until he died there, may God have mercy on him, and he was transferred from it to Fustat via the Nile and his son, the Commander of the Faithful, the Umayyad Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was born there.
It was mentioned in the Tawfiq plans of Ali Mubarak that the name Halwan was given to three regions in the world, the first in "Khorasan" in Nishapur and the second in Iraq "near the mountains of Baghdad", while in Egypt it was named after "Halwan bin Imran bin Al-Haf bin Quda’ah" as one of the kings granted him this region so it was named after him. As for Egyptian Halwan... or the suburb of Halwan in ancient times, Ali Mubarak mentioned it by saying: "It is a village above Egypt from the east of the Nile between it and Fustat about two leagues.
It is also a village of excursion, as mentioned by Yaqut al-Hamawi in Mu'jam al-Buldan and in Al-Maqrizi's plans, that it, i.e. Halwan, is attributed to Halwan bin Amr bin Imru' al-Qais, the king of Egypt, bin Saba bin Yashjub bin Ya'rub bin Qahtan, and this Halwan, i.e. the man, was in the Levant at the head of the army of Abraha Dhi al-Manar al-Tubba'a. According to this statement, this village has been inhabited for approximately one thousand three hundred and fifty-eight years. It was called Ma'murah. Al-Maqrizi and after him Ali Mubarak also say in their plans: "In the history of the French, it is on the banks of the Nile, about eight leagues between it and Fustat, and that in ancient times it was called "Al-Ban" and was one of the famous cities in Egypt, then time passed over it until it declined until God granted it to Abdul Aziz bin Marwan when he took over the rule of the Nile Valley, and he liked its air so he renovated and repaired it, and the reason for his stay there was that he was keen to visit it.. and establish a residence for himself there." As for Al-Maqrizi, he made another addition and said that the plague occurred in FustatTat, so Abdul Aziz left it and settled in Helwan inside the desert, in a place called "Abu Qarqoura", which is the head of the spring that Abdul Aziz attended and led it to the palm tree that he planted in Helwan. It was also reported from Ibn Al-Kindi that the plague occurred in Egypt in the year seventy, so Abdul Aziz left it and settled in Helwan, and he liked it, so he settled in it and put guards, assistants and police in it, and built houses and mosques in it and renovated it with the best buildings and planted its palm trees and vineyards, and the buildings continued to increase during his stay in it, which was more than fifteen years.
In 1849, the government of Khedive Abbas I sent some soldiers, acting on the advice of a professor at the School of Medicine in Cairo, to exploit the sulfur water, and a wooden tank was built for the springs and two small rooms were attached to it. The success of the experiment on the soldiers had a great impact in attracting a large number of Egyptians to the springs of Helwan. Europeans also flocked to it intermittently and in a limited manner due to the lack of a suitable place to stay and the distance of Helwan from Cairo and the difficulty of reaching it.
In 1868, Khedive Ismail sent a committee of scientists to Helwan to study and write reports on Helwan's healthy waters. Upon receiving the report, he ordered the Public Works Department to build a bathhouse at the site of the springs. During the foundation laying ceremony, a circular basin with a diameter of approximately eight meters was found, built of red bricks, 25 centimeters thick, and lined with limestone. Next to this basin, some broken columns, bases, and capitals were found. This basin collected four springs that flowed at a rate of six hundred cubic feet of water per hour. It is believed that this is the bathhouse that Al-Maqrizi spoke about. Dr. Riel, who later became the director of the baths, says that in 1870, work on the project stopped and the site was left under the protection of two Bedouin guards. Then Dr. Riel submitted a request to Khedive Ismail for two hundred pounds to build a temporary bathhouse, tents, and equipment from the War Department (Ministry of War). In this primitive form, Dr. Dale opened the bathhouse on July 2, 1871, and invited the public to benefit from the sulfurous water. Egyptian and foreign visitors from Cairo and Alexandria came to him in numbers that exceeded all his preparations and imaginations. Among those visitors was the wife of Khedive Ismail, who came with him and his entourage. Within three weeks of treatment, the Khedive's wife made great progress, which prompted the Khedive, who used to visit Helwan regularly, to turn the area into a health resort, and the baths there increased.
Including baths for Europeans, a private bath for the Khedive, and fourteen public baths. A small hotel was also built there, containing 40 rooms, and was called the "Grand Hotel" at the time, then its name was changed to "The Grand Baths Hotel".
In 1909, Helwan was known as a modern city located about 24 kilometers south of Cairo, and about three kilometers east of the Nile. This location was imposed by nature and was not chosen by man.
The city was built on a plateau that rises about 35 meters above the river, and its height increases towards the east and the Arab Hills until it reaches a height of about 75 meters. Above this plateau, the sulfur springs and mineral springs around which Helwan was built gush forth.
It was said in another story that Helwan acquired its name from the old village of Helwan on the western bank of the Nile opposite the village of Badrashin. At this time, the Helwan suburb was built around the baths by order of the Khedive, and those wishing to build were granted many facilities to encourage them to develop the suburb. Before the establishment of the railway line between Cairo and Helwan, transportation was done by the "omnibus", which is a "bus" pulled by four mules and had a capacity of six seats. It made three trips a week and returned on the second day of its arrival in the suburb of Helwan. When Khedive Tawfiq assumed the throne of the country, he paid special attention to Helwan and built a palace there and was keen to make it a first-class health resort. Most of the suburb was built during his reign, so much so that he died in his palace in Helwan in 1892. After his death, the construction movement there stopped. In 1899, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II officially opened a new bath establishment built by the Egyptian-Helwan Railway Company. The establishment was leased to the "George Nungovich" company. In Helwan, the observatory and the meteorological center were located. Among the personalities who used to visit Helwan to seek treatment with its waters are Prince Leopold (who was the regent of Bavaria), the sad Empress Elizabeth, Queen of Austria and Hungary, Queen of Sweden, and the Prince of Wales (King of Britain) Edward VIII. Lord Cromer was also a regular visitor to the suburb.
The means of communication between Cairo and Helwan were the railways and the Nile River. Until 1909, trains ran at a rate of one train every half hour during the day and departed from Bab al-Louq.
King Fouad I had transferred the Hayat Hotel to Fouad I Sanatorium, and Zulfiqar Pasha established the Japanese Garden in 1917, and finished it in 1920. After that, King Farouk bought the Casino San Giovanni, which was later transformed into the Helwan Corner or the Farouk Corner Museum. In 1939, a natural spring burst forth, which is the Helwan Spring. The Helwan wax museum was transferred from Cairo, which was founded by Fouad Abdel Malek in 1934, to Helwan, near these springs. In the museum, we find three-dimensional models that embody all the popular rituals and aspects of Egypt's history. After the July Revolution, Helwan was transformed from a suburb for treatment to an industrial fortress, reaching our current era, in which we have witnessed the transformation of many of the places and aspects of beauty in this important suburb into chaos, and the demolition or destruction of many of its immortal monuments and palaces. Over the ages, the Umayyad Helwan also disappeared and nothing remained of it until it was rebuilt by Khedive Ismail as a city for healing and recreation, taking advantage of the waters of its large springs. He built his famous palace in it and the ministers, princes, pashas and the elite built palaces around it. Helwan became a city of sophistication and beauty until it became vulgar in our time and became a city of pollution and chaos.

### Helwan Now

When the July 23 Revolution came, one of the revolution's plans was to establish the largest factories. The town is located in Helwan Governorate in (Al-Ma'asara and Al-Tebbin), which have become a source of pollution, but the Helwan district has remained somewhat far from pollution due to the absence of factories in the heart of the Helwan district.
Current Helwan is one of the largest suburbs of Cairo and is indeed the largest suburb in terms of area and is located in the far south of Cairo and includes three sections: Helwan Section, Al-Tebbin Section and 15 May City Section
It has one of the most important and largest universities in Egypt, which is Helwan University and the university campus is located in the Ain Helwan area. Helwan has recently become famous as the largest industrial center in Cairo and its most famous factories are iron and steel factories, cement factories, military factories, Nasr Automotive Factory and Sigwart Factory in Maasara and the Egyptian Company for the Manufacture of Telephone Equipment (Quick Tel) in Maasara, but this industrial boom made it somewhat polluted. It was transformed into an independent governorate from Cairo, but a decision was issued by the Council of Ministers to annex it to Cairo Governorate again after the revolution of January 25, 2011.
The first water dam in history was built in Wadi Garawi, south of Tebbin in Pre-dynastic era.

## Administrative boundaries of the district

Helwan city is located south of Tebbin - and is bordered to the north by Maasara district - to the east by 15 May City - and to the west it overlooks the Nile River.
* Northern border: El Masara.
* Southern border: Al-Tabbin district.
* Eastern border: Al-Nasr Road (Cairo) and 15th of May (city)
* Western border: Nile Corniche Road

## Al-Sheikhat

* Economic housing.
* Helwan Al-Bahriya.
* Helwan Al-Balad
* Helwan Al-Sharqiya.
* Helwan Al-Gharbiya.
* Helwan Al-Qibliya.
* Kafr El-Alaw
* Ain Helwan

## Division
### Ain Helwan

Ain Helwan is one of the upscale suburbs of the Helwan district, which is affiliated with South Cairo, in Cairo Governorate, in Egypt.

### Kafr El-Alaw

Kafr El-Alaw is one of the suburbs of Cairo Governorate affiliated with Helwan district, and one of the most important Industrial Citis in Helwan, it contains many factories and companies such as Egypt Helwan Spinning and Weaving Company and Mofco Helwan for furniture, and it has Helwan Airport for aircraft training, and it has a Cement Helwan factory, which is one of the famous cement factories in Egypt.

### Helwan El-Balad
## Famous Figures

Among the influential figures in the history of Egypt who were born in Helwan are:
* The writer Gamal El-Ghitani.
* Dina Abdel Aziz Member of the Egyptian House of Representatives for the Helwan district in the 2016 Parliament.
* Saleh Pasha Sobhi, one of the oldest residents of Helwan in the early nineteenth century, and there is a main street named after him.
* Former football player Hossam Hassan.
* Former football player Ibrahim Hassan.
* And the Prophet of God Moses was also born there
Footballer Mohamed Abdel Azim