Mataria

Mataria (Arabic: المطرية‎‎  pronounced [el.mɑ.tˤɑ.ˈɾej.jɑ]) is a district in the northern region of Greater Cairo, east of the Nile, in Egypt. The district is unrelated to the coastal town in the Dakahlia Governorate, that is also named Mataria. The district's location was part of the ancient city of Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt.

The name, Mataria, (30° 7'46.08"N 31°18'26.94"E) is thought to come from the Latin word which means 'mother', and is from the presence of the 'tree of the Virgin Mary' in this district.

Mataria, with the nearby Ain Shams district, had a notable history during Egypt's Pharaonic period as a part of ancient Heliopolis. The district has archaeological sites of the period, some only recently discovered, beneath its current structures. In ancient Roman times Heliopolis belonged to the Augustamnica province. Legend tells of the Christian Holy Family sheltering under a tree in Heliopolis, presently known as 'the tree of the Virgin Mary', now with the Chapel of the Virgin in Mataria.

The French naturalist Pierre Belon du Mans mentions visiting Mataria in his 1547 journey to Egypt. Mataria once had the villas of prominent people. The famous Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi lived in a villa he named ‘Karmet Ibn Hani’ or Ibn Hani’s Vineyard كرمة ابن هانىء here, near the palace of the Khedive Abbas II at Saray El-Qobba, until his exile from Egypt at World War I.

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