Egypt

The gift of the Nile — pharaohs and pyramids

Egypt is one of the oldest civilisations in the world: 5,000 years ago pharaohs built pyramids, made mummies and wrote in hieroglyphs. 95% of Egypt is desert, and everyone lives along the Nile — 'Egypt is the gift of the Nile'. Cairo is the biggest city in Africa. Through the Suez Canal, ships sail from Asia to Europe without going around Africa. Egypt lies in both Africa and Asia!

Capital: Cairo. Language: Arabic.

The Arab Republic of Egypt covers 1 million km² with 105 million people (3rd in Africa, 1st in the Arab world), 96% of whom live in the Nile valley and delta (4% of the land). Nature: the Nile (6,650 km, among the world's longest rivers), the Sahara (the Libyan and Arabian deserts), the Sinai Peninsula (in Asia), the Red Sea reefs, the Aswan Dam (Lake Nasser). History: unification in 3100 BC (Menes), the Old Kingdom (the Giza pyramids, 2600 BC), the New Kingdom (Tutankhamun, Ramesses II, Luxor), Cleopatra and Rome (30 BC), the Library of Alexandria, the Arab conquest (641), Cairo (969, Al-Azhar — one of the oldest universities), the Ottomans, the Suez Canal (1869), Britain, a republic in 1952; Tutankhamun's tomb (Carter, 1922), the Rosetta Stone (Champollion, 1822 — hieroglyphs deciphered). Economy: Suez (12% of world trade), tourism, gas, cotton. The Grand Egyptian Museum (2024). With Uzbekistan: scholarly ties between Al-Azhar and Bukhara, Ibn Sina's works studied in Egypt, Termez scholars under the Mamluks.

Fun facts

• 96% of Egyptians live on just 4% of the land — along the Nile.
• 12% of world trade passes through the Suez Canal.
• Nobody could read hieroglyphs for 1,400 years — until 1822.