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Zefta Zifta
City
Zefta Location in Gharbia, Egypt Show map of Nile Delta Zefta Zefta (Egypt) Show map of Egypt
Coordinates:30°42′51″N31°14′39″E / 30.7142°N 31.24425°E /30.7142; 31.24425[1]
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Gharbia
Area
• Total	197.4 km2 (76.2 sq mi)
Elevation [1]	16 m (52 ft)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	442,721
• Density	2,200/km2 (5,800/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)

Zefta (Arabic:زفتى pronounced[ˈzeftæ],Coptic: ⲍⲉⲃⲉⲑⲉZevethe^[3]) is an Egyptian city in theNile delta, within theGharbia governorate. It is across the Nile fromMit Ghamr city ofAd Daqahliyah governorate.

In the 12th century, Zefta was an important regional trading center, especially fortextiles;silk,flax,indigo,sesame, andsugar were among the commodities bought and sold here. Some of these products were consumed locally, while others were sent to other towns, includingCairo.^[4]

In the 1670s,Abbas Agha, the Chief Eunuch of theOttoman Empire, made a largewaqf endowment consisting of diverse Egyptian properties. Zefta was home to the single largest number of properties he endowed, leadingJane Hathaway to describe it as his "pet charity".^[4] Among Abbas Agha's endowments in Zefta was a large complex wherecoffee beans were pounded and roasted, along with an associatedcoffeehouse.^[5][4] Hathaway hypothesizes that, given its earlier importance as a trade center, 17th-century Zefta remained an importantentrepot where boats carrying coffee fromSuez to Cairo would stop. From Zefta, the coffee would then have been taken into other towns for consumption.^[4] Other properties Abbas Agha endowed in Zifta included aqaysariyya,caravanserai, fifteen shops and two workshops, and aschool teaching theQur'an - the only school included in the endowment. He also left four copper vessels to thephysicians of Zefta, a rare exception to the rule that waqf endowments must consist of immovable property.^[4]

The1885 Census of Egypt recorded Zifta as a city in its own district inGharbia Governorate; at that time, the population of the city was 11,087 (5,571 men and 5,516 women).^[6]

Zefta is well known in the modern Egyptian history during the 1919 uprising, also known as theEgyptian Revolution of 1919, when the British occupation expelledSaad Zaghloul Pasha out of Egypt along with other leaders of theWafd Party and were exiled to Malta, the people of Zefta, led byMohamed El Kafrawy Pasha andYoussef El Guindi, gathered and declared their independence from the crown and named itZefta Republic. The town of Zefta has also seen the birth ofMostafa Younis, who works in the field of aviation,Fouad Younis, who works as an accountant and the engineerMoghad Younis.^{[citation needed]}

Zefta, is the location of one of Nile barrages built during 1881–1952 to control the Nile flow.

Notable figures born in or around Zefta include:
Kimon Evan Marengo,Mostafa Kamal Tolba,Mostafa El-Sayed,Mark Ibn Kunbar,Ahmed Seif al-Islam Keshty,Eman Hassaballa Aly,Sameera Moussa and Samir Al Aswad.

Zefta has anarid desert climate (Köppen:BWh).

• List of cities and towns in Egypt

• Populated places in Gharbia Governorate
• Cities in Egypt

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