View source for Ezbet El Haggana (Madinat El-Amal)

{{Short description|Slum Area in Cairo, Egypt}}
'''Ezbet El Haggana/ Al-kilo arba'a wa nus''' (Also spelt, ‘Izbit Al-Haggāna, Arabic عزبة الهجانة/ الكيلو أربعة ونص) is a 750-acre (315 HA) ''shiakha'' (census block) sub-district in the [[Nasr City]] West district, in the Eastern Area of [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]]. Haggana is a mostly [[Self-build|self-built]] [[Informal housing|informal settlement]] that [[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]] called a mega-[[slum]], due to its supposedly large size, high population density and lack of basic infrastructure,<ref>{{citation |last=Davis |first=Mike |title=Planet of Slums |page=32 |year=2007 |location= |publisher=Verso |isbn=9783935936569}}</ref> with housing issues similar to other [[Housing in Egypt|deprived neighbourhoods in Egypt's]] cities.
After a visit by president [[Abdel Fattah el-Sisi]] in February 2021, he decided to rename the community '''Madinat al-Amal''' (City of Hope, {{langx|ar|مدينة الأمل}}) in light of plans to upgrade the area.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2021-02-17 |title=المتحدث باسم محافظة القاهرة يكشف سبب تغيير اسم "عزبة الهجانة" إلى "مدينة الأمل" |url=https://m.akhbarelyom.com/news/newdetails/3263608/1/المتحدث-باسم-محافظة-القاهرة-يكشف-سبب-تغي |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=بوابة اخبار اليوم}}</ref>
== History ==
As early as the 1930s, the Armed Forces housed their camel corps border patrol ''(hajjana)'' at the 4.5&nbsp;km point in the then desert outskirts on the Cairo-[[Suez]] road.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2015-02-24 |title='Izbit Al-Haggāna |url=http://www.tadamun.co/?post_type=city&p=5469&amp;lang=en&lang=en#.Y7OVycTMIoA |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=Tadamun}}</ref>  leading to the names Ezbet al-Haggana (Haggana Hamlet) and ''al-kilo arba'a wa nus''. Over the years the camp turned into a permanent settlement as soldiers built single-storey stone structures with mud ceilings (''al-suwaysi'' houses), until Cairo expanded east in the 1960s with the construction of the [[Nasr City]] district and the vacant desert land became valuable real estate that was initially [[Squatting|squatted]] in the 1970s and later progressed into a complex system of illegal subdivision and sales, resulting in conflicts and physical altercations and the emergence of what some called a 'land mafia.'<ref>{{Citation |title=قصة منطقة عزبة الهجانة/ الكيلو أربعة ونص، القاهرة |date=2013-09-28 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCUzkgS1_A0 |publisher=Iskanalzil Youtube Channel |language=ar |access-date=2023-01-03}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
== Demographics ==
Populatuion estimates for Haggana varied widely over the years between 30,000 and  is one million people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sabry |first=Sarah |title=Egypt's Informal Areas: Inaccurate and Contradictory Data |url=https://www.academia.edu/1626165/Egypts_Informal_Areas_Inaccurate_and_Contradictory_Data}}</ref> However, the latest 2017 Census puts it at 86,195 people,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.cedejcapmas.org/adws/app/4d5b52dc-669d-11e9-b6a6-975656a88994/index.html |title=2017 Census for Population and Housing Conditions |publisher=CAPMAS |year=2017 |location=Cairo}}</ref> giving it a density of 115 people/acre (273/ha, 27,363/km2).
== See also ==
*[[Housing in Egypt]]
*[[Nasr City]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{coord missing|Egypt}}
[[Category:Districts of Cairo]]
[[Category:Slums in Egypt]]