The Daira Sanieh was the largest state-run company in Egypt during the nineteenth century. According to Samir Raafat, it was composed of the best sugar plantations in Upper Egypt, included four hundred and seventy kilometers of railroads, sixty-five locomotives and 2,092 wagons, nine sugar mills, substantial irrigation and drainage canals, Nile steamers, tugs and barges, warehouses, crops in the fields, cattle and even entire towns.