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Egypt

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Countries;
Countries

   SOS Children works in Egypt. For more information see SOS Children in
   Egypt, Africa
         جمهورية مصر العربية
   Ǧumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah
   Arab Republic of Egypt

   Flag of Egypt Coat of arms of Egypt
   Flag          Coat of arms
   Anthem: Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
   Location of Egypt
   Capital
   (and largest city)      Cairo (Al-Qahirah)
                           30°2′N 31°13′E
     Official languages    Arabic, Masri (national)
   Government              Republic
    - President            Muhammad Hosni Mubarak
    - Prime Minister       Ahmed Nazif
        Establishment
    - First Dynasty        c.3150 BC
    - Independence granted February 28, 1922
    - Republic declared    June 18, 1953
                         Area
    - Total                1,001,449 km² ( 30th)
                           386,660 sq mi
    - Water (%)            0.6
                      Population
    - 2006 estimate        78,887,007 ( 15th)
    - 1996 census          59,312,914
    - Density              74/km² ( 120th)
                           192/sq mi
         GDP ( PPP)        2004 estimate
    - Total                $305.253 billion ( 32nd)
    - Per capita           $4,317 ( 112th)
         HDI  (2006)       0.702 (medium) ( 111th)
          Currency         Egyptian pound (LE) ( EGP)
          Time zone        EET ( UTC+2)
    - Summer ( DST)        EEST ( UTC+3)
        Internet TLD       .eg
        Calling code       +20

   Egypt ( Egyptian: Km.t, Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Kīmi, Arabic: مصر Miṣr; Egyptian
   Arabic: Máṣr), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in
   North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia.
   Covering an area of about 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,560  square
   miles), Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel
   and the Gaza Strip to the northeast; on the north and the east are the
   Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, respectively.

   Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in the world. The vast
   majority of its 78.8 million population (2006) live near the banks of
   the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or 15,450 sq miles) where the only
   arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land form part of the
   Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. Around half of Egypt's
   residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the
   densely populated centres of greater Cairo (the largest city in Africa
   and the Middle East), Alexandria and other major towns in the Nile
   Delta.

   Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's
   most ancient and important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids and
   the Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of Luxor contains a
   particularly large number of ancient artifacts such as the Karnak
   Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as
   the main political and cultural centre of the Middle East.

Etymology

   km.t (Egypt)
   in hieroglyphs


   km m   t
        niwt
     * One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, km.t, or "black
       land," is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the
       Nile floods, distinct from the 'red land' (dSr.t) of the desert.
       The name is realized as kīmi and kīmə in the Coptic stage of the
       Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Kymeía.

     * Miṣr, the Arabic and official name for modern Egypt ( Egyptian
       Arabic: Maṣr), is of Semitic origin directly cognate with the
       Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim), meaning "the two straits" (a
       reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt), and
       possibly means "a country" or "a state". Miṣr in Arabic also means
       "a country" or "a state".

     * The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived
       from the ancient Greek word Αίγυπτος (Aigyptos). According to
       Strabo, Αίγυπτος (Aigyptos), in ancient Greek meant "below the
       Aegean" (Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως, "Aegaeou uptiōs"), and was formed by the
       combination of the two words. It has also been suggested that the
       word is a corruption of the ancient Egyptian phrase ḥwt-k3-ptḥ
       meaning "home of the Ka (Soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple of
       the god Ptah at Memphis.

History

   The Nile River in Egypt.
   Enlarge
   The Nile River in Egypt.

   The Nile Valley was site of continuous human habitation since at least
   the Paleolithic. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of
   artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the
   desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a grain- grinding culture
   using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another
   culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers using stone tools. Climate
   changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the
   pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara. Early tribal
   peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled
   agricultural economy and more centralized society.

   By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction
   had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic, several
   predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt.
   The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally
   regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest
   known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about
   seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities
   coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand
   years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent
   contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian
   hieroglyphic inscriptions appear during the predynastic period on
   Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.
   tAwy ('Two Lands')
   in hieroglyphs


   N16
   N16

   A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise
   to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia.
   Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tAwy,
   meaning 'Two Lands'; and later km.t ( Coptic: Kīmi), the 'Black Land',
   a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river.
   Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained
   distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The
   first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old
   Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most
   notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza
   Pyramids.
   The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old
   Kingdom, are modern national icons that also lie at the heart of
   Egypt's thriving tourism industry.
   Enlarge
   The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old
   Kingdom, are modern national icons that also lie at the heart of
   Egypt's thriving tourism industry.

   The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval
   for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of
   government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in
   the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of
   Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival
   of the first alien ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos.
   The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC, and
   founded a new capital at Avaris. They were eventually driven out by an
   Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth
   Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes.

   The New Kingdom (c.1550−1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty,
   marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded
   during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal
   in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is
   known for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut,
   Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and
   Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism
   came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with
   other nations brought in new ideas in the New Kingdom.
   First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is
   Cairo's most famous Coptic church.
   Enlarge
   First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is
   Cairo's most famous Coptic church.

   The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the
   Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last
   native pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt
   fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of
   foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm,
   Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD
   first century. Diocletian's reign marks the transition from the Roman
   to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian
   Christians were persecuted. The New Testament was by then translated
   into Egyptian, and after the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct
   Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.

   The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief
   Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt
   was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to
   Egypt was Sunni, though early in this period Egyptians began to blend
   their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived
   through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that
   have flourished to this day. Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic
   Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries,
   including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the
   Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, a Turco- Circassian
   military caste, the Mamluks, took control about AD 1250 and continued
   to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in
   1517.
   Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth cenutry within the
   Cairo Citadel.
   Enlarge
   Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth cenutry within the
   Cairo Citadel.

   The brief French Invasion of Egypt in 1801 had a great social impact on
   the country and its culture, as native Egyptians were introduced to the
   principals of the French Revolution and were invited to head their own
   government. A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman
   Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation
   of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali taking control
   of Egypt where he was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led
   a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation
   projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which
   were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor
   Isma'il Pasha.

   Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt
   became an important world transportation hub. In 1866, the Assembly of
   Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government.
   Its members were elected from across Egypt and eventually they came to
   have an important influence on governmental affairs. The country also
   fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its
   investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in
   1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914
   when as a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire,
   Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the khedive,
   replacing him with his uncle who was appointed Sultan of Egypt.
   Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of
   nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.
   Enlarge
   Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of
   nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.

   Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence
   was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition
   to take a stronger stand against British occupation and the first
   political parties were founded. After the first World War, Saad Zaghlul
   and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement after gaining
   a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled
   Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, Egypt witnessed
   its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people
   throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral
   declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922.

   The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution
   in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul
   was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924, and in 1936
   the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. However, continued instability
   in the government due to remaining British control and increasing
   involvement by the King in politics led to the eventual toppling of the
   monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament through a coup d'état by
   a group of army officers in 1952. They forced King Farouk I to abdicate
   in support of his son King Ahmed Fouad II.
   Evening view of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.
   The Cairo Opera House (center) is the main performing arts venue in the
   Egyptian capital.
   Enlarge
   Evening view of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.
   The Cairo Opera House (centre) is the main performing arts venue in the
   Egyptian capital.

   The Egyptian Republic was declared on 18 June 1953 with General
   Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was
   forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of
   the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest. Nasser
   assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt
   from the United Kingdom on June 18, 1956. His nationalization of the
   Suez Canal on July 26, 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years
   after the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt lost the Sinai to Israel,
   Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's
   Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States,
   expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the Infitah economic
   reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular
   opposition alike.

   In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched a surprise attack on Israel
   in an attempt to regain the occupied Sinai Penninsula. Both the US and
   the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached between both sides.
   Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree
   that the Yom Kippur war presented Sadat with a political victory that
   would later allow him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made
   a historical visit to Israel which led to the 1978 peace treaty in
   exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's
   initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to
   Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but was supported by the vast
   majority of Egyptians. Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by a
   fundamentalist military soldier in 1981 and was succeeded by the
   incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change,
   popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy
   and greater civil liberties.

Politics

National

   The Office of the President of Egypt at the Presidential Palace.
   Enlarge
   The Office of the President of Egypt at the Presidential Palace.

   Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President Mohamed Hosni
   Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14, 1981,
   following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar
   El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is
   the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr.
   Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following
   the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office.

   Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party
   semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically
   divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it
   rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been
   elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt
   also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last
   presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term,
   was held in September 2005.

   In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise
   television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's
   presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in
   the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952
   movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader
   from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative
   came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for
   more freedom and democracy." However, the new law placed draconian
   restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to
   prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against
   Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory.
   The Egyptian Parliament.
   Enlarge
   The Egyptian Parliament.

   Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential
   elections about government interference in the election process through
   fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by
   pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. This poses
   major questions about the government's purported commitment to
   democracy.

   As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of
   democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of
   the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more
   than 78 million) actually turned out for the 2005 elections.
   Newspapers, however, have exhibited an increasing degree of freedom in
   criticizing the president, and the results of the 2005 parliamentary
   elections, which saw Islamist candidates such as the banned Muslim
   Brotherhood winning seats, indicate that a change of some sorts may be
   underway.

International

   The permanent headquarters for the League of Arab States (The Arab
   League) is located in Cairo. The Secretary General of the League has
   traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr
   Moussa is the current Secretary General of the Arab League. The Arab
   League briefly moved out of Egypt to Tunis in 1978 as a protest at the
   peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.

   Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with
   the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty
   at the Camp David Accords. Egypt has a major influence amongst other
   Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a
   mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the
   Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab nations still give credence to
   Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited.

   Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as
   Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

   A territorial dispute with Sudan over an area known as the Hala'ib
   Triangle, has meant that diplomatic relations between the two remain
   strained.

Human rights

   Several local and international human rights organizations, including
   Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have reported on Egypt's
   poor human rights record for many years. In 2005, the government of
   Egypt faced unprecedented public criticism as Egyptian democracy
   activists challenged President Hosni Mubarak's quarter century of
   authoritarian rule. Some of the numerous and most serious violations
   include routine torture; arbitrary detentions and trials before
   military and state security courts; discriminatory personal status laws
   governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance with respect to
   women; and discriminatory laws against religious
   minorities–particularly Christians and Bahá'ís–which place severe
   restriction on church building and renovation among other violations.

   Approximately fifteen thousand people remain in prolonged detention
   without charge under the Emergency Law, according to the Cairo-based
   Human Rights Association for Assistance to Prisoners. The Egyptian
   government last renewed the Emergency Law (Law No. 162 of 1958) in May
   2006 for another term.

   The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the
   longest-standing bodies for the defense of human rights in Egypt.

Military

   The Egyptian military is one of the largest and strongest military
   powers on the African continent and the Middle East. The Egyptian Armed
   forces have also had more battle-field experience than most armies in
   the region, with a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active
   personnel.

   Conscription is compulsory for Egyptian men of 18 years of age who are
   not the only male child. Full-time students may defer their service
   until the age of 28. The length of the service depends on the level and
   kind of education achieved by the conscript and needs of the army at
   the time of conscription.

   Egypt continues to contribute regularly to United Nations peacekeeping
   missions, most recently in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

Administrative divisions

   Map of Egypt
   Enlarge
   Map of Egypt

   Egypt is divided into twenty-seven governorates (muhafazat, singular
   muhafazah).

    Governorate    English name   Type
  Ad Daqahliyah    Dakahlia     lower
  Aswan            Aswan        upper
  Asyut            Assyout      upper
  Al-Bahr Al-Ahmar Red Sea      frontier
  Bani Suwayf      Beni-Suef    upper
  El-Beheirah      Behera       lower
  Bur Sa'id        Port Said    urban
  Dumyat           Damietta     lower
  Al-Fayyum        Fayoum       upper
  Al-Gharbiyah     Gharbia      lower
  Al Iskandariyah  Alexandria   urban
  Al-Isma'iliyah   Ismailia     lower
  Janub Sina'      South Sinai  frontier
  El Gizah         Giza         upper

                                          Governorate     English name    Type
                                        Kafr ash Shaykh  Kafr El-Sheikh lower
                                        Matruh           Matrouh        frontier
                                        Al-Monufiyah     Menoufia       lower
                                        Al-Minya         Menia          upper
                                        Al-Qahirah       Cairo          urban
                                        Al-Qalyubiyah    Kalyoubia      lower
                                        Qina             Quena          upper
                                        Shamal Sina'     North Sinai    frontier
                                        Al-Sharqiyah     Sharkia        lower
                                        Suhaj            Suhag          upper
                                        Al-Suways        Suez           urban
                                        El Wadi El-Gedid New Valley     frontier
                                        Al-Uqsur         Luxor          upper

Economy

   Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum
   exports, and tourism; there are also more than five million Egyptians
   working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe.
   The United States as well has a large population of Egyptian
   immigrants.

   The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake
   Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the
   agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population (the
   largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the
   Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy.

   The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new
   millennium through economic reform and massive investments in
   communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving
   U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and
   is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States
   following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as
   well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal.

   Economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period
   of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by
   the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a
   booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as
   one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms.

Demographics

   Egyptian farm.
   Enlarge
   Egyptian farm.

   Egypt is the most populous country in the Middle East and the
   second-most populous on the African continent, with nearly 79 million
   people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of
   the Nile (notably Alexandria and Cairo), in the Delta and near the Suez
   Canal. Approximately 90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of
   the remainder to Christianity (primarily the Coptic Orthodox
   denomination). Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be
   divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers
   and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages.

   Egyptians are by the far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 97-98%
   (about 76.4 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include
   the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai
   Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient
   Nubian communities clustered along the Nile in the southernmost part of
   Egypt. Egypt also hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers, made
   up mostly of 70,000 Palestinian refugees and 20,000 Sudanese refugees.
   The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared,
   with only a small number remaining in Egypt and those who visit on
   religious occasions. Several important Jewish archaeological and
   historical sites remain.

Religion

   Cairo's unique city scape with its ancient mosques
   Enlarge
   Cairo's unique city scape with its ancient mosques

   Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives as visitors to
   the country quickly discover. The rolling calls to prayer that are
   heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace
   of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its
   numerous mosque minarets and church towers.

   Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at approximately 90% of the population,
   with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A
   significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders.
   Christians represent about 10% of the population, with the largest
   being the Coptic denomination (primarily Coptic Orthodox, but also
   Coptic Catholic and Coptic Protestant) at 9%, while the remaining 1%
   include Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Armenian
   Orthodox, largely found in Alexandria and Cairo.

   According to the constitution, any new legislation must implicitly
   agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is
   largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of
   Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim
   clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar
   University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions
   authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues.

   Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University
   (Arabic: جامعة الأزهر) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher
   studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the
   oldest extant university. Egypt also has a strong Christian heritage as
   evidenced by the existence of the Coptic Orthodox Church headed by the
   Patriarch of Alexandria, which has a following of approximately 50
   million Christians worldwide, most importantly in Ethiopia and Eritrea
   (one of the famous Coptic Orthodox Churches is Saint Takla Haimanot
   Church in Alexandria).
   Over seven million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of
   the Coptic Church.
   Enlarge
   Over seven million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of
   the Coptic Church.

   Religious freedom for Egypt's Coptic Christian community is hampered to
   varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and
   restrictive government policies. Until recently, Christians were
   required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in
   churches, but the law was recently eased. Copts have faced increased
   marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état. That however changed to
   some degree when President Sadat appointed Boutros Boutros-Ghali, as
   the Egyptian Foreign Minister. Prominent Copts on the cabinet now
   include Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Environment Minister
   Maged George. In addition, Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful
   businessman and one of the wealthiest people internationally is an
   Egyptian Copt. Under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January
   7) was recognized as an official holiday in 2002. The Coptic community
   however has occassionally been the target of hate crimes and physical
   assault, most recently during attacks on three churches in Alexandria.
   In addition, many Copts continue to complain of being minimally
   represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and
   of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their
   religion.

   Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the
   world. Jews partook of all aspects of Egypt's social and political
   life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu
   Naddara), was a Jew, as was popular singer Leila Mourad. After the 1956
   Suez Crisis, some 25,000 Egyptian Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel
   Nasser, their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was
   confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed,
   reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews
   in Egypt number less than 200.

   Bahá'ís in Egypt, whose population ranges between several hundred and a
   few thousand, have their institutions and community activities banned.
   Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are
   also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards
   (conversely, Islam, Christianity, & Judaism are officially recognized);
   hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a
   court case recognized the Bahá'í Faith, but the government appealed the
   court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on 15 May.

   There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their
   numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks
   legal sanction. In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called
   for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on
   charges of insulting Islam in four of his books.

Geography

   White Desert, Farafra.
   Enlarge
   White Desert, Farafra.

   At 386,636  mi² (1,001,450  km² ), Egypt is the world's
   thirtieth-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size
   to Tanzania, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska.

   Egypt is bordered by Libya on the west, Sudan on the south, and on
   Israel and Gaza Strip on the northeast. Egypt's important role in
   geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental
   nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa
   and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez
   Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via
   the Red Sea.

   Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a big,
   sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over one hundred
   feet high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan
   Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient
   Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western
   threats.

   Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient
   cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla
   El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom
   Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez
   Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el
   Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa.
   Satellite image of Egypt, generated from raster graphics data supplied
   by The Map Library
   Enlarge
   Satellite image of Egypt, generated from raster graphics data supplied
   by The Map Library

   Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate
   and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information.

Climate

   Egypt has a dry climate. It is hot in the summer, with temperatures
   averaging between 80 and 90°F. Winters are warm, with temperatures
   averaging between 55 and 70°F. A steady wind from the northwest helps
   hold down the temperature near the coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that
   blows from the south in Egypt, usually in spring or summer, bringing
   sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to
   more than 100°F. Rain seldom falls in Egypt. Along the Mediterranean
   Coast, the average yearly rainfall is 8 inches. Farther south, only
   about one inch of rain falls every year.

Culture

   Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient
   Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt
   maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced
   later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the
   Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism,
   Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's
   ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the
   influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient
   Egypt.

   Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been
   renowned for centuries as a centre of learning, culture and commerce.
   Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab
   World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm
   of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the
   United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA.

Renaissance

   In the mid-nineteenth century, Rifa'a et-Tahtawi started the Egyptian
   Renaissance, which renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed
   Egypt to Enlightenment principals. Tahtawi co-founded with education
   reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for
   inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi,
   who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt.
   Egypt's renaissance reached a peak through the work of people like
   Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa and
   Taha Hussein. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a
   commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to
   bring progress.

Arts

   The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify
   design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the
   Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and
   contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world
   art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts
   venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has
   flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than
   thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced
   each year. Cairo in fact has long been known as the "Hollywood of the
   Middle East." To bolster its media industry further, especially with
   the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a
   large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif,
   have achieved world-wide fame.

Literature

   Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of
   Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment
   with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed
   have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern
   Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913
   in the Egyptian vernacular. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the
   first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
   Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her
   feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and
   tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre
   amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm
   (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi.

Music

   Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo.
   Enlarge
   Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo.

   Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African
   and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and
   flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud.
   Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local
   music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its
   beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz
   and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music
   giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and
   Abdel Halim Hafez. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has
   become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk
   music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities.

Festivals

   Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also
   known as mulids. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic
   or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective
   of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated
   with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare
   that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan
   to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim
   ( Copto- Egyptian: Ϭⲱⲙ‘ⲛⲛⲓⲥⲓⲙ shom en nisim) has been celebrated by
   Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months
   of Baramouda (April) and Bashans (May) following Easter Sunday.

Sports

   Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian
   Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and
   enjoy the reputation of long-time champions of the sport regionally.
   Squash and tennis are other close favorites among Egyptians. The
   Egyptian Squash team has been known for its fierce competition in
   world-wide championships since 1930s.

Geographic locale

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