Facts about Egypt
Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub.
Egypt has about 10.7 million poor people, and 70 percent of them live in rural areas.
Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth.
The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement.
Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture, and commerce.
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.
Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinct in its religion, arts, language, and customs.
Despite these achievements, the government has failed to raise living standards for the average Egyptian, and has had to continue providing subsidies for basic necessities.
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.
During the Neolithic, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt, remaining somewhat culturally separate but maintaining frequent contact through trade.
A constitutional referendum was held on March 19, 2011, and on November 28, 2011 Egypt held its first parliamentary election since the previous regime had been in power.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures, exceeding $6 billion in 2006.
Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community.
The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian renaissance, marking the transition from medieval to early modern Egypt.
The first modern Egyptian novel, Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal, was published in 1913.
Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882.
The Egyptian military has recently undergone a massive modernization, mostly of the air force.
Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
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.
After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Greek, Christian, and Islamic culture.
Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor.
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.
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia.
Some of the most serious human rights violations, according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt, are routine torture, arbitrary detentions, and trials before military and state security courts.
Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, and today there are more than thirty satellite channels.
Diocletian's reign marks the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted.
When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta in 1919, Egypt witnessed its first modern revolution.
The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700?2200 B.C.E.
The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital.
The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution, in 1923, based on a parliamentary representative system.
The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians, and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country.
The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until Egypt was invaded in 639, by the Muslim Arabs.
Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise, and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East.
Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule.
Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab world.
Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over a hundred years.
The poll, held between 26 and 28 May 2014, resulted in a landslide victory for el-Sisi, who was sworn into office as President of Egypt on June 8, 2014.
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the second-most populous on the African Continent.
Sabastiye, near Nablus, was the northernmost province of the Persian administration in Palestine, and its southern borders were drawn at Hebron.
Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture.
Egypt has a major influence among other Arab states and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia.
Most Arab nations still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by ambitious Saudi Arabia and oil-rich Gulf states.
Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east.
Contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene.
At 386,636 square miles (1,001,450 kmІ), Egypt is the world's thirtieth-largest country (after Mauritania).
The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism.
Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had an apparent chance to exercise self-governance.
When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 B.C.E., each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape.
Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies.
Most of the country’s rural poor people live in Upper Egypt, where there are higher rates of illiteracy and infant mortality, poorer access to safe water and sanitation, and larger numbers of underweight children.
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.
Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African, and Western elements.
Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 90 percent of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam.
The Arab League briefly moved out of Egypt to Tunis, in 1978, as a protest at the peace treaty with Israel, but it returned in 1989.
Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat, who also writes about women and tradition.
The permanent headquarters of the Arab League is located in Cairo, and the secretary general of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian.
Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as secretary general of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.
The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday.
Small communities spread throughout the desert regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes.
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.
A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, and a minority are Shi'ites.
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.
A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos.
Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate two new religions, Christianity and Islam, and a new language, Arabic.
Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over 1.1 million cubic meters in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries.
The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art.
In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud.
Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt.
Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the first century.
Egypt is a transit point for cannabis, heroin, and opium moving to Europe, Israel, and North Africa as well as a transit stop for Nigerian drug couriers.
Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch three more spy satellites.
The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and beliefs except Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a big, sandy desert.
The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s.
began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara Desert.
Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids.
Nasser assumed power as president and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18, 1956.
Egypt was slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI in Africa in 2007.
The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt, usually in spring or summer, bringing sand and dust; it sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than 100°F (38°C).
Egyptian soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of longtime regional champions.
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.
The New Testament was by then translated into Egyptian, and after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.
Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre among Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen, and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi.
Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars who had studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt.
The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture.
Ethnic minorities include a small number of Bedouin Arab nomads in the eastern and western deserts and in the Sinai, as well as some 50,000-100,000 Nubians clustered along the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt.
The Egyptian Republic was declared on June 18, 1953, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first president.
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.
Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism.
Today, Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural center of the Middle East.
Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power.
The Egyptian armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the basic principles of life, nature and society were determined by the gods at the creation of the world. It all began with the first stirring of the High God in the primeval waters. ... These writings describe how the earth was created out of chaos by the god Atum.
To the Egyptians themselves, their country was simply known as Kemet which means 'Black Land' so named for the rich, dark soil along the Nile River where the first settlements began. Later, the country was known as Misr which means 'country', a name still in use by Egyptians for their nation in the present day.
The name 'Egypt' comes from the Greek Aegyptos which was the Greek pronunciation of the Egyptian name 'Hwt-Ka-Ptah' (which means "House of the Spirit of Ptah", who was a very early God of the Ancient Egyptians).
The Egyptians invented and used many simple machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid construction processes. They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of ships. Egyptian paper, made from papyrus, and pottery were mass-produced and exported throughout the Mediterranean basin.
The Egyptian's inventions were many and it might be easier to list the things they did not invent such as the wheel; not unexpected in a country where everyone travels on water. ... The Pyramids. ... Writing. ... Papyrus Sheets. ... Black Ink. ... The Ox-drawn Plough. ... The Sickle. ... Irrigation.More items...
Mummification. The earliest ancient Egyptians buried their dead in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural 'mummies'. Later, the ancient Egyptians began burying their dead in coffins to protect them from wild animals in the desert.
Egypt–United Arab Emirates relations. Since the independence of the United Arab Emirates from Britain in 1971, Egypt and the UAE relations were always at a good level and developing at an unprecedented rate. Egypt has an embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulate-general in Dubai while the UAE maintains an embassy in Cairo.
The Pyramids of Giza, built between 2589 and 2504 BC. The ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids may have been able to move massive stone blocks across the desert by wetting the sand in front of a contraption built to pull the heavy objects, according to a new study.May 1, 2014
The most famous Sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is one of the largest and oldest statues in the world. Archeologists believe that it was carved around 2500 BC and that the head is meant to be the likeness of the Pharaoh Khafra. The Great Sphinx faces the sunrise and guards the pyramid tombs of Giza.
Last year, 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt, and tourism generated $11 billion in revenue, according to the Egyptian Tourist Authority in New York. Tourism in Egypt makes up about 11 percent of the gross domestic product, the tourism organization said.Feb 11, 2011
Khan El Khalili Bazaar.Mini Pyramid Souvenirs.Mini Shisha.Papyrus Scroll.Alabaster Vase.Gold Jewelry.Scarab.Khartouche.
Sudan. Egypt / Meaning of the name. The name "Egypt" is believed to have come from the original name of Egypt's ancient capital Memphis, "Hout ka-Ptah," meaning "Castle of the ka of Ptah." This name was often used even for the country as a whole.
Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization. It's also a top destination for some of the world's most famous sights and monuments. Get the scoop on the seven wonders of Egypt.
Currently the danger level in most of Egypt is coloured Green on FCO UK which is SAFE. Egypt has a lot to offer tourists and in general is safe and welcoming to tourists. ... Tourist destinations are also safe to visit with the vast majority of tourists having no problems and only positive experiences.
Re: flight time from london to egypt ?!?! If you are leaving London Gatwick at 1.30 you should arrive in Sharm at 8.45, the flight is normally 5 hours 15 mins, but can vary, depending on the weather. It's usually slighty longer on the way back, I think about half and hour, again depending on the weather. 3.Nov 10, 2007