Dalga
Dalga is a very large village of about 120,000 people in Minya Governorate in Egypt. It is the largest village in Egypt and the second largest in Africa behind Saaba, Burkina Faso. About 20,000 Christians live there.
In the 4th century, Dalga was the original residence of Abba Or of Nitria, an Egyptian Orthodox Christian ascetic venerated as a saint.
Notably, on 3 July 2013, the day Mohamed Morsi was deposed from power by the Egyptian military, Dalga was occupied by Islamists who drove out the police and assumed power. Under Islamist rule the ancient Coptic Christian Monastery of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam was looted and burned as were the Catholic and Anglican churches; Christians were terrorized. Two attempts by the Egyptian military to take the town during the summer of 2013 failed. Egyptian police retook the town in a pre-dawn attack September 16, 2013.
Historical populations
Despite it being a village till today the population exceeded 10,000 residents in 1920s. The 1947-1976 figures are for the village itself and any figure from 1986 and after is slightly inflated as it includes surrounding settlements- 1927 census - 11,857
- 1937 census - 15,412
- 1947 census- 18,941
- 1966 census - 23,456
- 1976 census - 31,701
- 1986 census - 44,196
- 1996 census- 55,420
- 2006 census- 63,751
- 2017 estimate- 110,000
- 2025 estimate- 120,000+
Climate