The 6th of October Governorate was one of the governorates

Governorates of Egypt

Egypt is divided for administrative purposes into 27 governorates . Egyptian governorates are the top tier of the country's five-tier jurisdiction hierarchy. A governorate is administered by a governor, who is appointed by the President of Egypt and serves at the president's discretion...

 of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. It was located in Middle Egypt

Middle Egypt

Middle Egypt is the section of land between Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, though Middle Egypt was technically a subdivision of Upper Egypt. It was not until the...

, to the west of the Nile Valley.

History

The 6th of October Governorate was split from the Giza Governorate on 17 April 2008. It was created through a presidential decree in order to ease the burden placed on Giza, one of Egypt's most densely populated governorates. The 6th of October City became the capital of the 6th of October Governorate, which was mostly made up of recently established planned communities

Planned community

A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...

 such as the Sheikh Zayed City. On 14 April 2011, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf

Essam Sharaf

Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf is an Egyptian academic who has been Prime Minister of Egypt since 3 March 2011. He served as Minister of Transportation from 2004 to 2005.-Early life and education:...

 dissolved the 6th of October Governorate and reincorporated its territory into the Giza Governorate.

Etymology

The governorate's name commemorates the Egyptian military's successful crossing of the Suez Canal on 6 October 1973 during the October War, which is known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War. The 6th of October is also Egypt's Armed Forces Day.

Geography

The area of the 6th of October is largely desert, but contains the left bank of the Nile Valley to both the north and south of Giza, and the important oasis town of Bahariya

Bahariya Oasis

El-Wahat el-Bahariya or el-Bahariya is a depression in Egypt. It is approximately 360 km away from Cairo. Located in Giza Governorate, the main economic sectors are agriculture, iron ore mining, and tourism...

. It is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude, a line where the northern

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 latitude

Latitude

In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...

 and eastern

Eastern Hemisphere

The Eastern Hemisphere, also Eastern hemisphere or eastern hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that is east of the Prime Meridian and west of 180° longitude. It is also used to refer to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia, vis-à-vis the Western Hemisphere, which includes...

 longitude

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

are the same.