Egypt (pronunciation [ ɛˈɡʏpt] or [ɛˈɡɪpt]; Arabic مصر Miṣr , officially Arab Republic of Egypt).
Egypt the country is located in northeast Africa with over 97 million inhabitants and an area of over one million square kilometers.

The Mega CityCairo is the Egyptian capital and the largest metropolisAfrica and Arabia, the “Greater Cairo” metropolitan area is one of the most populous urban regions on earth. Other megacities in the country are Alexandria and Gizeh.

In terms of economic performance in the GDP per capita, Egypt is in place 94 out of 190 countries (2016, PPP). It was ranked 116th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index in 2019.

The Ancient Egypt is considered to be one of the early High cultures of the world. Since the Arab-Islamic Expansion, Egypt has become Mashrek region of the Arabic region. As a intercontinental state, it has a land bridge from the larger part of Africa to Asia, to the Sinai Peninsula.

The Revolution of 2011 changed the social and political conditions in the country. In the Democracy Index, Egypt ranked 137th out of 167 in 2019.

Egypt the country: Overview

Mainly because of its large population, Egypt has enormous political and cultural influence in the Arab and Islamic world. But it was also of great importance in the history of human civilization, which is evidenced by many excavations and ancient architectural sights. Already around 3000 BC. with Ancient Egypt one of the early advanced civilizations of the ancient world. After the time of the pharaohs, the country on the Nile experienced an eventful history of many foreign rulers until it regained its independence in 1922. But even now the power struggles over Egypt did not end, they continued internally. The Arab Spring protests also swept Egypt in 2011. This was followed by the national crisis of 2013/14.

Egypt’s neighboring countries to the south are Sudan and to the west Libya. The northern natural limit is the Levant Sea, the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. The nearest island is Cyprus, about 380 km as the crow flies from the Egyptian coast. In the northeast, Egypt borders Gaza and Israel. In the southeast it has an extensive coast to the Red Sea with its two sea arms, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba or Eilat. Opposite the latter Gulf are Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to which ferry services exist. The longest river in Africa, the Nile, flows through the country from south to north as its most important lifeline and flows into the Mediterranean Sea in a delta. Another lifeline is the Suez Canal, an artificial waterway of outstanding importance for the world economy, which connects the European Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. Large parts of the country’s territory are deserts.

Egypt the country: Climate

Egypt the country lies within the North African Dry Belt with very little rainfall and significant seasonal and diurnal temperature variations. Only the northern coastal strip and the Nile delta are influenced by the Mediterranean with winter precipitation between 100 and 200 mm; south of Cairo, on the other hand, it rarely rains. The mean daily maximum temperatures in January are between 20 °C (Port Said, Cairo) and 24 °C (Aswan), although it can cool down considerably at night. In July, daily temperatures reach 31°C (Port Said), 35°C (Cairo) and 41°C (Aswan). The heat is easy to bear because of the low relative humidity of around 30% (in summer). The hot Chamsin, a sand and dust wind coming from the south, blows from March to June. On the Red Sea coast, the climate is a little more temperate with less hot summers (around 35 °C) and mild winters (even at night rarely below 10 °C).

See also Egypt Weather

Flora and fauna

The natural vegetation is severely limited due to the low rainfall and the intensive agricultural use of the Nile valley.[9] The desert is almost completely devoid of vegetation, tamarisks, acacias and thorn bushes grow here and there, in the desert steppes also hard grasses; Clustered along the banks of the Nile are Nile acacia, date palm, sycamore and carob trees, as well as introduced casuarinas. Lotus plums, bamboo canes and reed plants are typical of the Nile Delta; the papyrus plants cultivated here in antiquity hardly exist anymore.

The fauna of Egypt the country is rich in waterfowl in the delta area and on the Nile (especially herons, cranes and Egyptian geese); during the winter months many European migratory birds join them. Kites, bearded vultures and goshawks are native to birds of prey and carrion. The country’s larger mammal species include – besides the domesticated camels, donkeys, sheep and goats – jackals, hyenas, fennecs, wild cats and – in the mountainous regions – Nubian ibex. The desert is enlivened by hares, jerboas, several species of lizards, scorpions. In the rural areas along the Nile, the Egyptian cobra occurs; a few crocodiles still live on Lake Nasser. There are more than 190 different species of fish in the Nile and in the lakes on the Delta Coast.

Ethnic Groups in Egypt the country

Most of the population – about 91% – are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. However, they became culturally and linguistically Arabized over time through immigration and interbreeding. The sedentary and farming fellahin and the Christian Copts, who mainly live in Upper Egypt and in the cities, are regarded as unmixed descendants.

About 140,000 Nubians still live in southern Egypt, and a larger number also live in the cities. Many of them were relocated to Kom Ombo from the south due to the construction of the Nasser Dam. Berber tribes once lived in the Libyan desert, but only a few of them now live in the Siwa oasis. There are also around 70,000 Arab Bedouins who live nomadic lives in the deserts of the country. Beja-speaking nomads also live in the desert east of the Nile.

Italians, Turks, Abkhazians and Britons also live in northern Egypt.The once thriving Greek and Jewish communities have all but disappeared, with only a small number remaining in Egypt; however, many Egyptian Jews visit the country for religious events and for tourism: many archaeological and historical Jewish sites can still be found in Cairo and Alexandria today.

Languages

The official language is Arabic. The local mother tongue is mostly Egyptian Arabic, a modern Arabic dialect. However, since the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the written language has been Standard Arabic, only in the Coptic Church is Coptic still used as the liturgical language, written in its own script, which is derived from Greek and some characters from Demotic script.

In the south and in the Charga oasis, many people speak Nubian. In the Siwa oasis, a Berber language is still spoken, the so-called Siwi. There are also Beja speakers in the southeast. There are also around 230,000 speakers of Domari – an Indo-Iranian language.

French is the most common foreign language among the upper class, and English has been the most common language lately. The main languages of the European minorities were Greek, Armenian (Western Armenian) and Italian. In late 19th-century Alexandria there was a large community of Italian-Egyptians, and Italian remained the city’s lingua franca into the 20th century.

Religions

Only Muslims, Christians and Jews are officially recognized. There are also around 5,700 Baha’i, around 150 Mormons and various smaller Egyptian religious communities, some of whom are affected by systematic oppression and persecution. The Baha’i, whose institutions were dissolved by law in 1960, are fighting for state recognition.

Muslims

About 90% of the inhabitants of Egypt profess Sunni Islam, Shiites and Ahmadis only have a very small significance numerically.[24] Many Egyptian Muslims belong to a Sufi order. The shadhiliya, the chalwatiya, the badawiya and the burhaniya are particularly widespread.

Since the end of the 1920s, there has been an Islamist mass movement in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was also politically very influential at times, but was repeatedly banned.[27] In the 1960s, when many Muslim Brotherhoods were in prison, radicalization took place in their circles. The ideologue Sayyid Qutb developed his theory of Jahiliyyah and declared all Muslims who did not observe Sharia as infidels. In the 1970s, several militant Islamist groups were formed that were ideologically based on Sayyid Qutb and committed terrorist attacks, in particular at-Takfir wa-l-Higra, al-Jamāʿa al-Islāmiyya and the Jihad organization. Some followers of these groups later joined the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, such as Aiman al-Zawahiri, who now heads this organization. One militant Islamist group operating from Sinai is the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, which joined the Islamic State (IS) in November 2014.

Visible signs of the increasing Islamization of society are the more and more frequently seen deeply veiled women. Among other things, this is due to the stronger influence of conservative currents from the Gulf States (reinforced by the return of Egyptian economic migrants from the region). As recently as the 1990s, the majority of Egyptian women were completely unveiled.

Christians

Before the Islamic expansion in the 7th century, Christianity was the dominant religion in Egypt; According to tradition, the evangelist Mark is said to have evangelised in Egypt in the middle of the 1st century. In central and upper Egypt (not uncommon in predominantly Christian villages), but also in Cairo and Alexandria, there is a Coptic minority, which, together with other Christians, makes up between four and 15 percent of Egypt’s total population. State and church figures differ greatly (according to official figures, Christians make up no more than six percent of the population).[30] Egyptian Christians face discrimination; after the 2011 revolution, around 100,000 left the country.

Other ancient oriental churches represented in Egypt alongside the Coptic Church are the Armenian Apostolic Church with around 15,000 members and the Syrian Orthodox Church with only around 500 members. The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria still exists today and has more than 200,000 believers in Egypt. Another orthodox church based in Egypt is the orthodox church at Sinai, to which only about 50 people belong in St. Catherine’s Monastery and its surroundings.

There are also smaller Christian communities such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses with 25,000 members and the Seventh-day Adventists with around 700 active members.[32] Jehovah’s Witnesses have not published data on their membership numbers in Egypt since they were banned in 1960.

Jews

There have been Jewish communities in the country since ancient times. Very few Jews live in Egypt today. In 1947 there were 75,000, in 1948 there were still 66,000 Jews. As a result of the First Arab-Israeli War, the Suez Crisis and the Six Day War, nearly all Egyptian Jewish residents were expelled and expelled, or fled. By 1968 almost all Egyptian Jews had to emigrate or flee abroad. From 1945 to 1949 the Cairo pogroms against the Jewish minority also took place.

Since the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979, the Jews in Egypt are no longer restricted in their freedom of religion, but they only form a marginal, aging minority.

Read more here on Wikipedia.