Al-Minyā

Minya stands on the western bank of the Nile in Middle Egypt, surrounded by the cultivated valley and facing the desert cliffs across the river. In the early Islamic period it became known as Minyat Ibn Khasib, after a governor associated with its growth. The medieval traveller Ibn Battuta praised the town when he journeyed through Upper Egypt. Its riverfront linked the city to the settlements and fields that lined the Nile.