Bani Suwayf, city in northeastern Egypt, capital of Bani Suwayf governorate. The city is located on the Nile River, 128 km (80 mi) south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Egypt's main north-south rail line. Bani Suwayf was originally a farming village known for its linen. It is now a center for cotton processing, with a broad strip of farmland along the Nile. In the 20th century Bani Suwayf underwent a rapid and largely unplanned expansion of markets, banks, offices, hotels, and residential areas. The city is a base for travelers who visit Egypt's largest oasis, Al Fayyum, and the monastery of Saint Anthony near the Red Sea. Ancient sites near Bani Suwayf include Herakleopolis, which was the capital of the 20th nome (province) of Upper Egypt as early as the 21st century BC, a pyramid and rock-hewn tombs at the town of Al Lahun, and ancient alabaster quarries at the edge of the desert. In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD Saint Anthony lived as a hermit on the Nile's east bank opposite Bani Suwayf before withdrawing deeper into the desert. The city was occupied by French army commander Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon I) in 1799. The seat of a Coptic Christian bishop, Bani Suwayf was the site of violent confrontations between Muslim fundamentalists and Coptic Christians in February 1987. Population (1992) 179,000.
