Minya Governorate
Minya Governorate lies on the Nile in Middle Egypt. Its capital, Minya city, stands on the west bank of the river about 245 km south of Cairo. The governorate covers 32,279 square kilometres. Egypt's census of 28 March 2017 counted 5,497,095 residents, and the official estimate for July 2023 is 6,337,595.
Key facts
- Minya city
- 32,279 square kilometres
- 5,497,095 at the census of 28 March 2017
- Nine markazes and the new city of New Minya
- Nine
Nine Coptic Orthodox dioceses and two Coptic Catholic eparchies are seated within it.
Districts
The census tables divide the governorate into nine markazes: Abu Qurqas, El Idwa, Minya, Beni Mazar, Deir Mawas, Maghagha, Mallawi, Matai and Samalut, the last counted as two markazes, Samalut and Samalut West. New Minya is counted separately as a new city.
Minya city
The Coptic Encyclopedia records that the city was known in Coptic as Tmone and, until the late nineteenth century, in Arabic as Bani Khasib. It was a bishopric by the early fourteenth century: a Bishop Yusab of Minya attended the preparation of the holy chrism in 1330. Minya University is in the city.
Coptic sites
The Monastery of the Virgin at Gabal al-Tayr. Dayr al-'Adhra', also called Dayr al-Bakarah (Monastery of the Pulley) and Dayr Jabal al-Tayr, is perched on the cliff that dominates the east bank opposite Samalut. The History of the Patriarchs lists the mountain among the places the Holy Family passed on the Flight into Egypt. Its church is partly hewn into the rock, and an inscription in it, dated 328, attributes its construction to Saint Helena. The Coptic Encyclopedia records two pilgrimages there: on 21 Tubah (29 January) and the greater one on 16 Misra (22 August).
Dayr Abu Fana. The monastery lies northwest of al-Ashmunayn, beyond the Bahr Yusuf, at the edge of the Libyan Desert; its decoration earned it the name Monastery of the Crosses. Al-Maqrizi, who died in 1441, placed it in the province of Minya and wrote that it had once sheltered a thousand monks. One of its monks, Theodosius, was elected patriarch in 1294. Part of a sixth-century church still stands and is used for services.
Dayr al-Barsha. The village, inhabited by Copts, stands on the site of an old monastery whose church is dedicated to Anba Bishoi, held by tradition to be its founder. Hermits once lived in the pharaonic quarries and tombs of the neighbouring Wadi al-Nakhlah.
Beni Hasan. Two groups of rock tombs about 13 km south of Minya city, from the eleventh and twelfth dynasties, were later occupied by monks: one tomb carries a Coptic alphabet on its north wall, and another was fitted as a church. Monks settled the nearby Speos Artemidos and the Valley of the Anchorites beside it from about the beginning of the fifth century, by one estimate based on the crosses carved on the walls.
Tuna al-Gebel. The necropolis of Hermopolis is noted for tombs of the Late Period that combine Greco-Roman and Egyptian art. In 2003 Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities put the necropolises of Beni Hasan, Dayr al-Barsha, Tell el-Amarna and Tuna al-Gebel on the country's tentative list for World Heritage as one property.
Church jurisdictions
The Patriarchate's website lists nine dioceses of the Coptic Orthodox Church whose seats lie in the governorate.
| Diocese | Bishop, as listed |
|---|---|
| Mallawi, Ansina and Ashmonin | Metropolitan Demetrius |
| Minya | Bishop Makarious |
| Abu Qurqas | Bishop Philopateer |
| Der Mouas | Bishop Boktor |
| East Minya | Bishop Fam |
| Samalout | Metropolitan Pephnotious |
| Mataai | Bishop Georgeos |
| Maghagha and Eladwa | Bishop Aghathon |
| Bani Mazar and Bahnasa | Bishop Anianos |
The Coptic Catholic Eparchy of Minya was erected on 26 November 1895. Its cathedral, Christ the King, is in Minya city, and Bishop Basilios Fawzy Al-Dabe has led it since his appointment on 3 November 2020. On 7 January 2020 part of its territory became the new Eparchy of Abu Qurqas. In 2015 the eparchy counted 55,200 Catholics in 30 parishes.