Introduction


In mid-1907, investigators working in South cadastre
Cairo in the province of Beni Suef finished the last of a series of
cards that made a complete inventory of agricultural tax revenue can
Egyptians. The survey could be completed a year earlier if the Nile had cooperated.
In 1906, returned to the river before the flood irrigation projects in the
province of Beni Suef were ready, so that the mapping of some villages
could only be achieved through the following June, when the waters returned to their
the lowest annual level 1. The national survey began in 1896. for
the ten years of its implementation, not only each boundary
border between the villages was reconsidered and mapped but more
each subdivision even within villages (known as the HODS
representing 50 to 100 dunams of land of equivalent quality) was established
and identified to serve as a tax base. When they came to map
boundaries of individual properties, investigators took steps but
they lacked any legal authority to decide the question of
property. When the owner and taxpayer overlapped at
of information about the investigation could establish a register
cadastral, but the rarity of this coincidence in all operations
led to an impasse.