# Agouza

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**Agouza** (Arabic: العجوزة) is one of nine municipal districts that form [Giza](/source/Giza) city,[1] which is part of the [Greater Cairo](/source/Greater_Cairo) metropolis, on the western bank of the river [Nile](/source/Nile). It is situated between [6th October Bridge](/source/6th_October_Bridge) and 15 May Bridge and south of [Imbaba](/source/Imbaba). Most of it is [colloquially](/source/Colloquially) known as [Mohandessin](/source/Mohandesin), a 1950s planned community originally called Madinat al-Awqaf, sub-divided in to a number of profession-based housing cooperatives, one of which was for engineers (*mohandissin*).

The [Egyptian National Circus](/source/Egyptian_National_Circus) and the adjoining [Balloon Theater](/source/Balloon_Theater) are on the Agouza Corniche. The [British Council](/source/British_Council) main centre in [Egypt](/source/Egypt) is also on the Corniche.

## History

Agouza used to be a mostly royal and state-owned agricultural estate held under *[waqf](/source/Waqf)* (endowment) until the early 20th Century with villages, such as [Mit Okba](/source/Mit_Okba), and *['izbas](/source/Joseph_Hekekyan)* (hamlets) such as al-Hutiyya.[2] From the 1930s the [Ministry of Awqaf](/source/Ministry_of_Awqaf_(Egypt)) piloted plans to turn the estates into a new suburban district of Cairo as [Dokki](/source/Dokki) to its south flourished. In 1948, its chief architect [Mahmoud Riad](/source/Mahmoud_Riad_(Architect)) set out the final plan of **Madinat al-Awqaf**, with plots being advertised for sale that year.[3]

Much of this development along with smaller developments to its south made up the Wasat (middle) district in the city of [Giza](/source/Giza),[4] before being divided in 1997 into the districts of Agouza (most of which is Madinat al-Awqaf/Mohandessin) and [Dokki](/source/Dokki), (the other half of Madinat al-Aqaf plus other developments) with most of Agouza known colloquially as [Mohandeseen](/source/Mohandiseen), even though it is a smaller non-administrative shiakha (census block) within it (see Demographics below).

### Origin of the name[citation needed]

There are two contesting stories explaining the origin of Agouza's name.

The first is that in the 1940s and 1950s, an old woman (*agouza* in Arabic) sat alongside the Corniche and sold coffee to cars passing by. When people wanted to meet up, they would say "I'm at the agouza," and the name just stuck. The story is unverified however.

The second, perhaps more likely story, is that the name refers to Nazly Hanem, the wife of Sherif Pacha who was Prime Minister at the time of Mohamed Ali in the 1800s. At the age of 80 she decided to build a mosque to fulfill her husband's wish after his death. Given her old age people referred to the mosque as *Al Agouza* which later became the name of the whole district.

### Nawal Street

After [Abdel Rahim Sabri Pasha](/source/Abdel_Rahim_Sabri_Pasha)'s daughter Nawal died at the age of 6, he named his palace (now the [Military Nasr Academy](/source/Military_Nasr_Academy)) after her, which led to its street being named Nawal Street.[citation needed]

## Demographics and sub-districts

The district of Agouza had a population of 278,479 in 2017, 143,681 male and 134,798 female.[5] It is made of six *shiakhas*:

2017 Population of the Agouza District by shiakha[5] Shiakha Code 2017 Census Total Population Male Female Ḥûtiyya, al- 210201 15,585 7939 7646 `Ajûza, al- (Agouza) 210202 12,473 6514 5959 Mît `Uqba (Mit Okba) 210203 68,393 34,590 33,803 A`lâm, al- (Madînat al-Awqâf) 210204 18,286 9314 8972 Muhandisîn, al- (Jazîrat Mît `Uqba) 210205 21,141 10,966 10,175 Arḍ al-Liwâ' 210206 142,601 74,358 68,243

## Notable places

### Hospitals

- Al-Agouza Hospital[6]

### Libraries

- 6 October Public Library

## References

1. ["الصفحة الرئيسية - الأحياء"](http://www.giza.gov.eg/areas/default.aspx#). *www.giza.gov.eg*. Retrieved 2023-01-08.

1. ["Mīt 'Uqba - Tadamun"](http://www.tadamun.co/?post_type=city&p=260&lang=en&lang=en#.Y7s6ahWZO3A). Retrieved 2023-01-08.

1. Keller, Thomas & Polach, Tomas (2010). ["Mohandessin"](https://archive.arch.ethz.ch/studio-basel/projects/cairo/student-work/mohandessin.html). *ETH Basel*. Retrieved 2023-01-08.

1. ["الصفحة الرئيسية حى الدقى"](http://www.giza.gov.eg/areas/ElDoki/Overview.aspx). *www.giza.gov.eg*. Retrieved 2023-01-11.

1. ["2017 Census for Population"](https://www.cedejcapmas.org/adws/app/4d5b52dc-669d-11e9-b6a6-975656a88994/). *cedejcapmas.org*. 2017. Retrieved 2023-01-08.

1. Weeks, R. (1977). "Study for El Agouza Hospital, Cairo". *World Hospitals*. **13** (4): 222–223. [PMID 10305879](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10305879)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Agouza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouza) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouza?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.