KHAMASTASHAR MAYO, MADINAT

residential town, Al-Qahirah (Cairo) muhafazah (governorate), Egypt. The town is a suburb of the industrial town of Hulwan and is located in the Wadi Hawf 2 miles (3 km) north of Hulwan, on a desert tract of 15 square miles (39 square km). Constructed in the late 1970s, it is part of the Egyptian government's program to shift population away from Cairo and the cultivable parts of the Nile River valley. Construction began in the 1980s on a regional water-recycling project centred at Hulwan, the water of which would be used to cultivate vegetables. In the spring of 1981 the town was opened for occupancy. A commuter railway and a highway link the town to Cairo (9 miles north) and Hulwan. Pop. (1986) 24,106.