Tanta, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt

🇪🇬 Tanta is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: 94 km (58 mi) north of Cairo and 130 km (81 mi) south-east of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia Governorate, it is a centre for the cotton-ginning industry. One of the major railway lines goes through Tanta. Annual festivals are held in Tanta for one week beginning on 11 October celebrating the birthday of Ahmad al-Badawi, a revered Sufi figure of the 13th century, who founded the Badawiyya Tariqa in Egypt and is buried in Ahmad Al-Badawi Mosque, the main mosque of Tanta. Tanta is known for its sweet shops and roasted chickpeas.

Overview The older name of the city is Tandata (Arabic: طندتا) which comes from its Coptic name. With its large cotton plantations, in 1856, Tanta became a stop on the railway network, primarily for the benefit of exporting its cotton to European markets. The area around Tanta was mostly fields but Tanta had grown into a large crowded city.

This city is a centre of celebration in late October at the end of the cotton harvest. Three million people, from around the Delta and other parts of the Arab world, come for the Moulid of Sayid Ahmed el-Badawi, which is a colorful, religious, eight-day celebration. The moulid is centered around the mosque and tomb of Sayid Ahmad al-Badawi, who founded one of Egypt's largest Sufi orders known as Ahmadiyyah or Badawiyya. He was born in Morocco, but emigrated to Arabia, and later was sent to Tanta in AD 1234 as a representative of the order from Iraq. He was granted permission to start a new order in Tanta and it soon flourished into one of Egypt's largest Sufi brotherhoods.

Tanta is famous for its sweet candy made of gelatin, coconut, sesame, peanuts, and chickpeas. Large quantities are sold during the mulid (Arabic: المولد) festivals when many Egyptians visit the city. The sweets have been considered a delicacy since the 1800s.

Tanta has many cotton processing factories and textile industries, and is also a university town with Tanta University since 1972.

Sites • Montazah garden • Tanta stadium • Tanta sporting club • Tanta teachers club • Tanta University • Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox church, which is over 200 years old • Saint George Cathedral • Saint Peter Catholic basilica • The Museum of Tanta contains items from ancient nearby sites of Sais, Naucratis, and Buto, such as pottery and statues. • El Mahallah is a large industrial town near Tanta, famous for its textiles.