Mit Ghamr

Mit Ghamr is a city in Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt, on the banks of the Damietta branch of the Nile Delta and near the city of Mansoura. It is the second largest city in the governorate and a major centre of the aluminium industry, accounting for more than 70 percent of Egypt's total production, especially of aluminium utensils. The city was historically important as a centre of Sufism in the Mamluk era and was destroyed three times by fires, the most severe in 1902, and rebuilt each time. It declared its independence during the 1919 Egyptian revolution, in what became known as the Sultanate of Mit Ghamr, and it is known as the birthplace of the first savings bank in the Middle East and of the first modern Islamic bank in the world. Its name was historically Minyat Ghamr, from the Arabic word for an elegant house surrounded by gardens, with Ghamr meaning submersion or flood.