Ramielt

North Sinai Governorate

As with all of these articles, I'm confused as to what the map you've added to North Sinai Governorate is showing. It's in the municipal division section, but the "counties and cities" section then mentions only six marakiz. You don't explain in the caption which "administrative divisions" are being shown. And this is the problem with most articles on Egyptian subdivisions. There is always a "municipal division" section, which doesn't seem to be a term even borrowed from the Arabic-language articles, but also sections of "cities." Can you help make sense of this. It's my understanding that a kism isn't even a division of Egypt, anymore, and that even when it was, it was not the primary administrative subdivision. Criticalthinker (talk) 06:26, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

What you find on the internet about egyptian sub-governorate administrative divisions can be very confusing and sometimes contradictory because the terms often change depending on the context. On Wikipedia we usually stick to the strict administrative meaning of the terms : a governorate in egypt can be divided into Marakez (plural of Markaz) ou aqsam (plural of qism) both divisions are on the same level and cannot ovelap. Traditionally, a markaz is a rural area and a qism is an urban or desert area but it's not a rule. North Sinai for example is, today, divided into 11 aqsam according to the CAPMAS (central statistics authority in egypt). I am quite sure (because it still currently used by sources and in practical life in Egypt) that the qism is an administrative division in Egypt that coexists with the term Markaz. The difference between both is, in the current legislation, only in the name.

On the North Sinai page the Counties and Citites section seems very outdated or a purely subjective list of links. The map that I created is the map of the current qisms of the governorate. If you are interested there is a complex interactive map provided by CAPMAS where you can see the different layers of administration (Governorate then Qism and Markaz then Shiyakha and Qarya).

There is this scheme in a french manual that wraps up the egyptian local administration system (just don't pay attention to the difference between a rural and urban governorate). I encourage you to compare the scheme to the CAPMAS map.

Don't hesitate if you have other questions or if I am not clear. Ramielt (talk) 20:45, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

There is a discussion we're having on the Subdivisions of Egypt page that may be more informative to what I'm talking about. It does, too, seem to be important whether a governorate is fully urban or mixed. The info I've looked up is that the urban governorates are/were entirely divided into qism, which were a division on the same level as marakiz, but outside the "regular" administrative subdivision regime. Governorates I've read are divided into marakiz in mixed ones, and hayy in urban ones, and in turn, those marakiz are subdivided into cities (madina) and villages (qarya). Hayys appear to be divided into other units, too, but those appear to be non-administrative. What's interesting, is that the interactive map you've shown me directly contradicts all of this. lol Yes, please go take a look at the "talk" page on the Subdivisions of Egypt article to see if you can work this out. The French manual you linked to, BTW, can not be accessed without an account. Criticalthinker (talk) 22:31, 15 March 2025 (UTC)