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Arab Republic of Egypt جمهورية مصر العربية Gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
Capitaland largest city	Cairo
Official languages	Arabic
Ethnic groups	99% Egyptians, 0.9% Nubians, 0.1% Greeks
Demonym(s)	Egyptian
Government	Semi-presidential republic
• President	Hosni Mubarak
• Prime Minister	Ahmed Nazif
Establishment
• First Dynasty	c.3150 BC
• Independence from United Kingdom	28 February 1922
• Republic declared	18 June 1953
Area
• Total	1,002,450 km (387,050 sq mi) (30th)
• Water (%)	0.632
Population
• March 2009 estimate	76 million (16th)
• Density	76/km (196.8/sq mi) (120th)
GDP (PPP)	2008 estimate
• Total	$442.640 billion
• Per capita	$5,898
GDP (nominal)	2008 estimate
• Total	$162.164 billion
• Per capita	$2,161
Gini (1999–00)	34.5 medium inequality
HDI (2008)	0.716 Error: Invalid HDI value (116th)
Currency	Egyptian pound (EGP)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Drives on	Right
Calling code	20
ISO 3166 code	EG
Internet TLD	.eg
Arabic (de jure), Egyptian Arabic (de facto)

Egypt (/ˈiːdʒɪpt/; Template:Lang-ar, Miṣr (Audio file "Misr- Egypt in Arabic.ogg" not found); Egyptian Arabic: Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: ar-EGP (help) /ˈmɑsˤɾ/; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its estimated 76 million live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East.

Egypt possesses one of the most developed economies in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and service at almost equal rates in national production. Consequently, the Egyptian economy is rapidly developing, due in part to legislation aimed at luring investments, coupled with both internal and political stability, along with recent trade and market liberalization.

Etymology

km.t (Egypt) in hieroglyphs

One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: egy-Latn (help)), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: egy-Latn (help)), 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 Template:Polytonic (Khēmía). Another name was t3-mry "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: egy-Latn (help)) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: egy-Latn (help)) "northland", respectively.

Miṣr, the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: arz-Latn (help)), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew Template:Lang-Hebrew2 (Mitzráyim), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land".

The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word Aígyptos (Αίγυπτος). The adjective aigýpti, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into qubṭ, whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: egy-Latn (help)), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which Aígyptos (Αίγυπτος) had evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptiōs ( Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 2) (help)), meaning "below the Aegean".

Geography

At 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi), Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is approximately the same size as all of Central America, twice the size of Spain, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and the combined size of the US states of Texas and California.

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.

Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. 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 desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes more than 100 feet (30 m) 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. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information.

Climate

Egypt does not receive much rainfall except in the winter months. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as 410 mm (16 in), with most of the rainfall between October and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt.

Temperatures average between 80 °F (27 °C) and 90 °F (32 °C) in summer, and up to 109 °F (43 °C) on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between 55 °F (13 °C) and 70 °F (21 °C) in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than 100 °F (38 °C).

Every year, a predictable flooding of the Nile replenishes Egypt's soil. This gives the country consistent harvest throughout the year. Many know this event as The Gift of the Nile.

The rise in sea levels due to global warming threatens Egypt's densely populated coastal strip and could have grave consequences for the country's economy, agriculture and industry. Combined with growing demographic pressures, a rise in sea levels could turn millions of Egyptians into environmental refugees by the end of the century, according to climate experts.

History

Ancient Egypt

There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, 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 the Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, 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 appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.

tAwy ('Two Lands') in hieroglyphs

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 kemet (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 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 foreign 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 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 noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country.

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 Macedonians and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. The last ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII, who commited suicide with her lover Marc Antony, after Caesar Augustus had captured them.

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 marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. 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 Adopted to islamic Empire by the Muslim Arabs. when they Defeated The Byzantine Armies in Egypt by Help of Some Revolutionary Egyptians, The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity that was Expanded in Egypt by the Byzantines, 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, inculding The late 3 Centuries of them Egypt was Maintained Their Own Empire, Away of The Abbasi Caliphate for which Cairo was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern the country until the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The mid-14th-Century Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population.

Modern History

The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. The expulsion of the French in 1801 by Ottoman, Mamluk, and British forces was followed by four years of anarchy in which Ottomans, Mamluks, and Albanians who were nominally in the service of the Ottomans, wrestled for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) emerged as a dominant figure and in 1805 was acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul as his pasha (viceroy) in Egypt; the title implied subordination to the Sultan but this was in fact a polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and Muhammad Ali, an ambitious and able leader, established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt (at first really and later as British puppets) until the revolution of 1952. His primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan (1820-1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple Byzantium itself, checked him: he had to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans, but he kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more lasting consequence of his military ambition is that it made him the moderniser of Egypt. Anxious to learn the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of the great powers he sent students to the West and invited training missions to Egypt. He built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service. For better or worse, the introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton, the Egyptian variety of which became famous, transformed Egyptian agriculture into a cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this were enormous: it led to the concentration of agriculture in the hands of large landowners, and, with the additional trigger of high cotton prices caused by the United States' civil war production drop, to a large influx of foreigners who began in earnest the exploitation of Egypt for international commodity production.

Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863). Abbas I was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious developers; unfortunately they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. The expense of this and other projects had two effects: it led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular discontent because of the onerous taxation it necessitated. In 1875 Ismail was forced to sell Egypt's share in the canal to the British government. Within three years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the government." Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In 1882 he became head of a nationalist-dominated ministry committed to democratic reforms including parliamentary control of the budget. Fearing a diminishment of their control, Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding Alexandria and crushing the Egyptian army at the battle of Tel el-Kebir. They reinstalled Ismail's son Tewfik as figurehead of a de facto British protectorate. In 1914 the Protectorate was made official, and the title of the head of state, which had changed from pasha to khedive in 1867, was changed to sultan, to repudiate the vestigial suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who was backing the Central powers in World War I. Abbas II was deposed as khedive and replaced by his uncle, Husayn Kamil, as sultan.

In 1906, the Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist movement. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in 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 22 February 1922.

The Revolution

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. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ousting of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad.

On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, 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 18 June 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, 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. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike.

In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.

Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 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 it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kefaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties.

Identity

The Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Islam and Christianity; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which Egyptians identify with each layer of Egypt's history in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists and intellectuals until the early 20th century. Arab nationalism reached a peak under Nasser but was once again relegated under Sadat; meanwhile, the ideology espoused by Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood is present in small segments of the lower-middle strata of Egyptian society.

Politics

National

Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since 14 October 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office (28 years). 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. 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. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the "conviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law."

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 72 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office.

Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on 19 March 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum would be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on 27 March 2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curb the activity of certain opposition elements, particularly Islamists.

The CIA World Factbook states that the legal system is based on Islamic and civil law (particularly Napoleonic codes); and that the judicial review takes place by a Supreme Court, which accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction only with reservations.

Human rights

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. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. 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.

Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Coptic Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major construction still requires governmental approval, while sporadic attacks on Christians and churches continue. Intolerance of Bahá'ís and unorthodox Muslim sects, such as Sufis and Shi'a, also remains a problem. The Egyptian legal system only recognizes three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. When the government moved to computerize identification cards, members of religious minorities, such as Bahá'ís, could not obtain identification documents. An Egyptian court ruled in early 2008 that members of other faiths can obtain identity cards without listing their faiths, and without becoming officially recognized. (For more on the status of religious minorities, see the Religion section.)

In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." For freedom of the press, Egypt was deemed "Partly Free" in 2008, ranking 124 out of the 196 countries surveyed.

In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Egypt had announced in 2006 that it was in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law, but in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul.

Foreign relations

Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. 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. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development.

The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.

Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. 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 states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

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

In the twenty-first century, Egypt has encountered a major problem with immigration, as millions of Africans attempt to enter Egypt fleeing poverty and war. Border control methods can be "harsh, sometimes lethal."

Governorates and markazes

Egypt is divided into 29 governorates (in Arabic, called muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes).

Each governorate has a capital, often having the same name as the governorate (see map, showing names of the 29 capitals).

The tables (below) list the governorates in alphabetical order. In April 2008, Cairo and Giza have divided to 4 governorates, the new governorates are 6th of October and Helwan beside Cairo and Giza

Economy

Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 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, 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.

Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about 600,000 metric tons (590,000 long tons; 660,000 short tons) per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at 1,940 cubic kilometres, and LNG is exported to many countries.

Economic conditions have started 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. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006.

Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat.

The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. 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.

Demographics

Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the third most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 83 million people (as of April 2009). Egypt's population was estimated at 3 million when Napoleon invaded the country in 1798. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), 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. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, made by the Green Revolution.

Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 98% of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases.

Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers, but they are estimated to be between 500,000 and 3 million. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. The once-vibrant Greek and Jewish communities in Egypt have virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities.

Media

Egyptian media are highly influential both in Egypt and the Arab World, attributed to large audiences and increasing freedom from government control. Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution; however, many laws still restrict this right. After the Egyptian presidential election of 2005, Ahmed Selim, office director for Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared an era of a "free, transparent and independent Egyptian media."

Religion

Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims comprising about 90% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians Almost the entirety of Egypt's Muslims are Sunni. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, and there is a minority of Shi'a.

Most of the non-Muslims in Egypt are Christians. Christians represent around 10% of the population and are the largest Christian community (in population) in the Middle East. About 90% of Christians in Egypt belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Cairo and Alexandria.

There is also a small, but nonetheless historically significant, non-immigrant Bahá'í population of around 2000, and an even smaller community of Jews of about 200, then a tiny number of Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic. The non-Sunni, non-Coptic communities range in size from several hundreds to a few thousand. The original Ancient Egyptian religion has all but disappeared.

According to the constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic law; however, the constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda.

Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University, founded in 970 A.D by the Fatimids as the first Islamic University in Egypt and the main Egyptian Church the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria established in the middle of the 1st century by Saint Mark.

In Egypt, Muslims and Christians live as neighbors, sharing a common history and national identity. They also share the same ethnicity, race, culture, and language.

Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives, The Adhan (Islamic call to prayer) that is heard five times a day has the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to media and entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and is justifiably dubbed "the city of 1,000 minarets", with a significant number of church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a history of religious extremism, recently witnessing a 2006 judgement of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court, which made a clear legal distinction between "recognized religions" (i.e., Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and all other religious beliefs. This ruling effectively delegitimizes and forbids practice of all but the three Abrahamic religions. This judgment had made it necessary for non-Abrahamic religious communities to either commit perjury or be denied Egyptian identification cards (see Egyptian identification card controversy), until a 2008 Cairo court case ruled that unrecognized religious minorities may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents.

In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday, though Copts 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. The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals, maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt.

Culture

Egyptian culture has six 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 other African countries. 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 center 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

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. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. 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 peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Tawfiq el-Hakim, Louis Awad, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Egyptians eat their crap.

Art and architecture

The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art and architecture. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Egyptian civilization is renowned for its colossal pyramids, colonnades and monumental tombs. Well-known examples are the Pyramid of Djoser designed by ancient architect and engineer Imhotep, the Sphinx, and the temple of Abu Simbel. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene, from the vernacular architecture of Hassan Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef, to Mahmoud Mokhtar's famous sculptures, to the distinctive Coptic iconography of Isaac Fanous.

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 has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. 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-born actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide 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 the works of Ahmed Fouad Negm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-AbnudiIn their belief, boats were used by the dead to accompany the sun around the world, as Heaven was referred to as “Upper Waters”. In Egyptian mythology, every night the serpentine god Apophis would attack the Sun Boat as it brought the sun (and as such order )back to the Kingdom in the morning. It is referred to as the “Boat of Millions” as all of the gods and all of the souls of the blessed dead may at one point or another be needed to defend or operate it.

Music

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 Amr Diab,Mohamed Mounir, 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 mulid. 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 (Coptic: Ϭⲱⲙ‘ⲛⲛⲓⲥⲓⲙ shom 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.

Egypt is one of the boldest countries in the middle east in the music industry. The next generation of the Egyptian music is considered to be the rise, as the music was disrupted by some foreign influences, bad admixing, and abused oriental styles. The new arising talents starting from the late 90's are taking over the rein now as they play many diffenet genres of many different cultures. Rock And Metal music are prevailing widely in Egypt now,as much as the oriental jazz and folk music are becoming well-known now to the Egyptian and non-Egyptian fans

Sports

Football is the Popular National Sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly, El Zamalek, Ismaily, El-Ittihad El-Iskandary and El Masry are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favorite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the Africa Cup of Nations. While, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990, the Egyptian team won the Africa Cup Of Nations an unprecedented six times, including two times in a row in 1957 and 1959 and again in 2006 and 2008, setting a world record.

Squash and tennis are other popular sports in Egypt. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. Amr Shabana is Egypt's best player and the winner of the world open three times and the best player of 2006.

The Egyptian Handball team also holds another record; throughout the 34 times the African Handball Nations Championship was held, Egypt won first place five times (including 2008), five times second place, four times third place, and came in fourth place twice. The team won 6th and 7th places in 1995, 1997 at the World Men's Handball Championship, and twice won 6th place at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

In 2007, Omar Samra joined Ben Stephens (England), Victoria James (Wales) and Greg Maud (South Africa) in putting together an expedition to climb Mount Everest from its South side. The Everest expedition began on 25 March 2007 and lasted for just over 9 weeks. On the 17th of May at precisely 9:49 am Nepal time, Omar became the first and youngest Egyptian to climb 8,850m Mount Everest. He also became the first Egyptian to climb Everest from its South face, the same route taken by Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953.

Egypt has a long history of participation at the Summer Olympics since 1912.

Best results

Military

The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel over the four main military branches: the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Air Defense Command.

See also

• List of ancient Egypt topics
• List of basic geography topics
• List of Egypt-related articles (alphabetical index)
• List of Egypt-related topics (topical index}
• List of international rankings
• List of modern Egypt-related topics
• Outline of Egypt (topical outline)

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a <div>...</div> open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.

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Lists

Main list: List of basic Egypt topics

• List of writers from Egypt
• List of Egyptian companies
• List of Egypt-related topics
• List of Egyptians
• List of Egyptian products & manufacturers
• List of Egyptian universities
• List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt
• Vice President of Egypt

Notes and references

1. ^ Central Agency for Population Mobilisation and Statistics - Population Clock (July 2008)
2. ^ "Egypt". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
3. Rosalie, David (1997). Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce. Routledge. p. 18.
4. "A Brief History of Alchemy". UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL SCHOOL OF CHEMISTRY. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
5. Breasted, James Henry (2001). Ancient Records of Egypt. University of Illinois Press. pp. 76, 40. ISBN 9780252069758. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005
7. Hoffmeier, James K (October 1, 2007), "Rameses of the exodus narratives is the 13th B.C. Royal Ramessid Residence", Trinity Journal: 1
8. World Factbook area rank order
9. More changes ahead for Egypt
10. E. A. Pearce, Charles Gordon Smith, The Times Books World Weather Guide, (Times Books/Random House: 1990), p.40
11. Sun, sand and searing heat
12. Robert Pateman, Salwa El-Hamamsy, Egypt, (Marshall Cavendish: 2003), p.7
13. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10.
14. Soliman, KH. Rainfall over Egypt. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, vol. 80, issue 343, pp. 104-104.
15. Marsa Matruh, Egypt. Weatherbase.com. Last accessed February 12, 2008.
16. Contingency planning for rising sea levels in Egypt | IRIN News, March 2008
17. Midant-Reynes, Béatrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
18. "The Nile Valley 6000-4000 BC Neolithic". The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
19. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69.
20. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39
21. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140
22. Egypt - Major Cities, U.S. Library of Congress
23. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39
24. Nejla M. Abu Izzeddin, Nasser of the Arabs, published circa 1973, p 2.
25. Nejla M. Abu Izzeddin, Nasser of the Arabs", p 2.
26. Anglo French motivation: Derek Hopwood, Egypt: Politics and Society 1945-1981. London, 1982, George Allen & Unwin. p 11.
27. De facto protectorate: Joan Wucher King, Historical Dictionary of Egypt. Metuchen, New Jersey, USA; 1984; Scarecrow. p 17.
28. James Jankowski, Egypt, A Short History, p. 111
29. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112
30. Vatikiotis, p. 443
31. Raymon Kondos (February 15). "The Egyptian Identity: Pharaohs, Moslems, Arabs, Africans, Middle Easterners or Mediterranean People?". Retrieved 2008-08-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
32. Jankowski, James. "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism" in Rashid Khalidi, ed. The Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, pp. 244-45
33. Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2003, pp. 264-65, 267
34. Business Today Egypt. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005.
35. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006.
36. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. 26 May 2005.
37. United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published 24 December 2005
38. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005.
39. ^ Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006.
40. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News.
41. ^ Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005
42. Church Building Regulations Eased
43. ^ U.S. Department of State (2004-09-15). "Egypt: International Religious Freedom Report". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Retrieved 2008-01-30. Cite error: The named reference "us_dos_egypt" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
44. ^ Johnston, Cynthia (2008-01-29). "Egypt Baha'is win court fight over identity papers". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-30. Cite error: The named reference "reuters" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
45. "Freedom in the World 2006" (PDF). Freedom House. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2006-07-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom
46. Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006
47. Freedom House. Freedom of the Press World Ranking. 2009
48. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Retrieved 2007-4-11.
49. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Retrieved 2007-4-13.
50. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
51. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights.
52. Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003.
53. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004
54. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007.
55. Desperate on the Border, ALASDAIR SOUSSI, Jerusalem Report, Nov. 9, 1953,
56. "Egypt: Economy". LookLex Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
57. IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Egypt: Corruption hampering development, says opposition report | Other | Breaking News
58. Daily News Egypt - Full Article
59. et - Full Story
60. Fatima El Saadani (2006). "Etisalat Wins Third License". Business Today. Retrieved 2008-08-21. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
61. Egypt - Population, U.S. Library of Congress
62. ^ "Egyptian people section from the World Factbook". World Fact Book. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
63. BBC NEWS | The limits of a Green Revolution?
64. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
65. ^ Refugees in Egypt.
66. Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt
67. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The "The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights". Archived from the original on 2007-12-30. states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US.
68. ^ Country profiles: Egypt BBC
69. ^ "Plus ca Change: The Role of the Media in Egypt's First Contested Presidential Elections", TBS
70. Freedom House 2007 report
71. ^ "Egypt from "The World Factbook"". American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). September 4, 2008.
72. ^ "Egypt from "U.S. Department of State/Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs"". United States Department of State. September 30, 2008.
73. ^ "Egypt from "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"". Foreign and Commonwealth Office -UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs. August 15, 2008.
74. ^ "Fact Sheet from "Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network"". Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network. October 10, 2008.
75. Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
76. Cole, Ethan (July 8, 2008). "Egypt's Christian-Muslim Gap Growing Bigger". The Christian Post. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
77. ^ ""Egypt, International Religious Freedom Report 2008"". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. September 19, 2008.
78. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006.
79. Abdelhadi, Magdi (October 6, 2005). "Egypt may allow first Islamist party". BBC NEWS. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
80. Robin Barton (2001-02-19). "Cairo: Welcome to the city of 1,000 minarets". London: The Independent.
81. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (2006-12-16). "Government Must Find Solution for Baha'i Egyptians". eipr.org. Retrieved 2006-12-16.
82. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002.
83. CIA The World Fact book
84. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29
85. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130
86. Cairo Film Festival information.
87. "Global influence of Egyptian culture". Egypt State Information Service. February 4, 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
88. Vatikiotis, op cit.
89. Egypt Military Strength

General references

 This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.

•  This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

External links

Government

• Egypt's Government Services Portal (Arabic, English)
• Egypt Information Portal (Arabic, English)
• Egypt Information and Decision Support Center (Arabic, English)
• Egypt State Information Services (Arabic, English, French)
• Chief of State and Cabinet Members

General

• Country Profile from the BBC News
• "Egypt". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
• Egypt at UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Template:Dmoz
• Wikimedia Atlas of Egypt
• Egypt Maps - Perry-Castañeda Map Collection
• Template:Wikitravel

Other

• Leonard William King, History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg.
• Egyptian History (urdu)
• By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu &layered PDF format)
• Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt.

Geographic locale

v t e Governorates of Egypt Urban Cairo Alexandria Port Said Suez Lower Egypt Ismailia Kafr El Sheikh Gharbia Dakahlia Sharqia Monufia Qalyubia Damietta Beheira Upper Egypt Giza Faiyum Beni Suef Minya Asyut Sohag Qena Aswan Luxor Frontier Red Sea New Valley Matrouh North Sinai South Sinai v t e Countries and territories of North Africa Sovereign states  Algeria  Egypt  Libya  Morocco  Sudan  Tunisia Partially recognized state Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Territories Morocco/SADR Western Sahara Spain Canary Islands Ceuta Melilla Alboran Alhucemas Chafarinas Vélez de la Gomera Portugal Madeira Savage Islands Sudan/Egypt Hala'ib Triangle Wadi Halfa Salient Bir Tawil Sudan/South Sudan Abyei Kafia Kingi Italy Pantelleria Pelagie Islands Libya/Chad Aouzou Strip Morocco/Spain Perejil Entirely claimed by both Morocco and the SADR. Spanish exclaves claimed by Morocco. Portuguese archipelago claimed by Spain. Disputed between Egypt and the Sudan. Unclaimed territory located between Egypt and the Sudan. Disputed between South Sudan and the Sudan. Part of Chad, formerly claimed by Libya. Disputed between Morocco and Spain v t e Middle East Countries Bahrain Cyprus Egypt Iran Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Northern Cyprus Oman Palestine Gaza West Bank Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Rojava Turkish occupation of northern Syria Turkey United Arab Emirates Yemen Society Climate change Democracy Economy Energy History Timeline Modern conflicts Human rights Water politics Water conflict Demographics Ethnic groups Genetics Metropolitan areas Religion Irreligion Culture Archaeology Cinema Cuisine Etiquette Music Dance Studies v t e Countries and territories of the Mediterranean Sea Sovereign states Albania Algeria Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Cyprus Egypt France Greece Israel Italy Lebanon Libya Malta Monaco Montenegro Morocco Slovenia Spain Syria Tunisia Turkey States with limited recognition Northern Cyprus Palestine Dependencies and other territories Akrotiri and Dhekelia (UK) Gibraltar (UK) Ceuta and Melilla (Spain) Marginal seas Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Alboran Sea Balearic Sea Ionian Sea Levantine Sea Libyan Sea Ligurian Sea Sea of Crete Sea of Marmara Sea of Sardinia Thracian Sea Tyrrhenian Sea v t e Countries bordering the Red Sea  Djibouti  Egypt  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Jordan  Saudi Arabia  Somalia  Sudan  Yemen

International membership

v t e Arab League Arab League Lists Politics Charter Council Flag Geography Headquarters History Military United States Central Command (United States military bases) Joint Defence Council Parliament Arab Union Membership Members Algeria Bahrain Comoros Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syria Tunisia United Arab Emirates Yemen Observers Armenia Brazil Chad Eritrea Greece India Venezuela Candidates South Sudan Diplomacy Arab Peace Initiative Arab League monitors in Syria Arab League–European Union relations Foreign relations Life Demographics Economy GDP Economic and Social Council Institutions Sport Pan-Arabism Union of Arab National Olympic Committees Pan Arab Games v t e Non-Aligned Movement Members and the NAM Cyprus ‡ Egypt Ghana India Malta ‡ Sri Lanka Tanzania Yugoslavia ‡ Structure Bureau Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement Organizations Centre for South-South Technical Cooperation Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity NAM Youth NAM News Network (News Agencies Pool) "Josip Broz Tito" Art Gallery of the Nonaligned Countries Principles Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Summits Bandung Conference Brioni Meeting 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 16th 18th 19th Founders Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia) Sukarno (Indonesia) Jawaharlal Nehru (India) Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt) People Houari Boumediene Fidel Castro Nelson Mandela Mohamed Morsi Nicolás Maduro Sirimavo Bandaranaike ‡ denotes a former member state of the Non-Aligned Movement Template:Afro-Asiatic-speaking nations v t e African Union History Pan-Africanism Decolonisation of Africa Casablanca Group Monrovia Group African and Malagasy Union Abuja Treaty Sirte Declaration Lome Summit Organisation of African Unity Chairperson Secretary General Geography Borders Extreme points Member states Regions Organs Executive Council Permanent Representatives' Committee Specialized Technical Committees Assembly Chairperson Commission Chairperson Deputy Chairperson AUCC 2025 election Pan-African Parliament Bureau Secretariat Gallagher Estate African Court of Justice African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights ECOSOCC Committees Peace and Security Political Affairs Infrastructure and Energy Social Affairs and Health HR, Sciences and Technology Trade and Industry Rural Economy and Agriculture Economic Affairs Women and Gender Cross-Cutting Programs Financial institutions African Central Bank African Monetary Fund African Investment Bank Peace and Security Council ACIRC African Standby Force Panel of the Wise UNAMID AMIB AMIS AMISOM MISCA Specialised agencies and institutions Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Politics APRM Foreign relations African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Enlargement United States Africa Command (United States military bases) United States ambassadors African Union–Ethiopia relations Symbols Anthem Emblem Flag Passport Economy Currencies (Gold standard) Development Bank African Economic Community NEPAD African Continental Free Trade Area Single African Air Transport Market Culture Africa Day African Border Day Theory Afro Federal Africa United States of Latin Africa East African Federation Category Template:D8 nations v t e Nations in the Group of 15 (G-15) Summits 1990 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2004 2006 2010 2012 Members Algeria Argentina Brazil Chile Egypt India Indonesia Iran Jamaica Kenya Malaysia Mexico Nigeria Senegal Sri Lanka Venezuela Zimbabwe v t e Community of Sahel–Saharan States (CEN-SAD) Benin Burkina Faso Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Djibouti Egypt Eritrea Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Liberia Libya Mali Mauritania Morocco Niger Nigeria São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Togo Tunisia v t e Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: Hissein Brahim Taha Member states Members Afghanistan Albania Algeria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Benin Burkina Faso Brunei Cameroon Chad Comoros Djibouti Egypt Gabon Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Indonesia Iran Iraq Ivory Coast Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lebanon Libya Malaysia Maldives Mali Mauritania Morocco Mozambique Niger Nigeria Oman Pakistan Pakistan-OIC relations Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Suriname Tajikistan Togo Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Uzbekistan United Arab Emirates Yemen Suspended Syria Observers Countries and territories Bosnia and Herzegovina Central African Republic Northern Cyprus Russia Thailand Muslim communities Moro National Liberation Front International organizations Economic Cooperation Organization African Union Arab League Non-Aligned Movement United Nations History 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