Qalyub is a town in the Al Qalyubiyah

Al Qalyubiyah

Qalyubia Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. Located in Lower Egypt, it is situated north of Cairo in the Nile Delta region. Its capital is Banha.-Cities:Cities in the Qalyubia Governorate include:* Banha* Khanka* Qaha* Qalyub...

 governorate 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 is situated in the northern part of the Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 metropolitan area, at the start of the Nile Delta

Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...

. In 1986, it had a population of 84,413 inhabitants, which grew to 106,804 residents by 2006.

Overview

Qalyub is the commercial center for a significant agricultural region, and houses the printing press for the Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram , founded in 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya . It is majority owned by the Egyptian government....

 newspaper. It is said to have been built using materials taken from ancient Heliopolis

Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...

, a few miles away.

On February 13, 2005, Qalyub was the location of a politically significant strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 over the benefits and the privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of the Qalyub Spinning Company.

Qalyub virus

Qalyub virus

Qalyub virus is a nairovirus discovered in a rat's nest in a tomb wall in the Egyptian town of Qalyub in 1952. The primary vector for transmission is the Ornithodoros erraticus tick, and thus it is an arbovirus....

(QYBV) is a member of the Bunyaviridae

Bunyaviridae

Bunyaviridae is a family of negative-stranded RNA viruses. Though generally found in arthropods or rodents, certain viruses in this family occasionally infect humans. Some of them also infect plants....

 group of vertebrate-infecting virus

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

es and was named after the town.