Egypt's westernmost delta province (governorate).
This province has existed as an administrative unit since Fatimid times. Nearest of Egypt's rural provinces to Alexandria, it was known while under the Mamluks and under the Ottoman Empire as a center of rebellious bedouin Arab tribes. Its capital is Damanhur. The estimated 1986 population of Buhayra was 1.8 million. Of its entire area, some 4,000 square miles (10,150 sq km) are in the Nile delta.
— ARTHUR GOLDSCHMIDT
