industrial city, in al-Buḥayrah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), between Wadi an-Naṭrūn and the western edge of the Nile delta, Lower Egypt. Construction on Madīnat as-Sādāt (named for President Anwar el-Sādāt) began in the early 1980s, as part of the Egyptian government's program to shift population and industry away from Cairo and the agricultural land of the Nile valley. The city is 58 miles (94 km) northwest of Cairo, in the desert, and covers an area of 19 square miles (48 square km). It is located near the main Cairo-to-Alexandria highway and also near a local road leading into the Nile valley.