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Zeitoun (Arabic: الزيتون meaning olives), also al-Zeitoun, is one of the eight districts that make up the Northern Area in Cairo, Egypt.[1] It has been made famous for its Marian apparitions at the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary of Zeitoun during the years 1968–1971.[2]
Until the First World War, the area was cultivated fields known as 'Izbet al-Zeitoun (Olive Estate), skirting the Eastern Desert just north of Cairo, and to the east of the then-new Heliopolis suburb. While Egypt was under British occupation, the Imperial School of Instruction was built there,[3] and New Zealand troops camped in the desert during the war.[4]
As Cairo expanded, Tawfiq Khalil Bey a real estate developer, bought land there and subdivided it into a suburb named Zeitoun. He also built a church that housed a mausoleum for his father, Khalil Ibrahim Pasha, in response to an appearance of The Virgin Mary.[5] Years later it would be known for a series of Marian apparitions.
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It was the birthplace of Fathia Nkrumah (born Fathia Rizk to a Coptic family), wife of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.[6]
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