Egypt

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Egypt

• The misterious culture

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Welcome to Cairo
. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's
largest city and has been for centuries a centre
of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the
highest number of Nobel Prizes in Africa and the
Arab World. The Egyptians were one of the first
major civilizations to codify in art. The wall
paintings followed a rigid code of visual rules
and meanings.
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• Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in
  the world, and the second most populous country
  in Africa (after Nigeria). The vast majority of
  its 76.5 million people (2007) live near the
  banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or
  15,450 sq miles) where the only arable
  agricultural land is found. Large areas of land
  form part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely
  inhabited. Around half of Egypt's residents live
  in urban areas, with the majority spread across
  the densely populated centres of greater Cairo
  (the largest city in the Arab World, Africa, and
  the Middle East), Alexandria and other major
  towns in the Nile Delta Egypt is famous for its
  ancient civilization and some of the world's most
  ancient and important monuments, including the
  Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza the
  southern city of Luxor contains a particularly
  large number of ancient artefacts such as the
  Karnack Temple and the Valley of the Kings.
  Today, Egypt is widely regarded as an important
  political and cultural centre of the Middle East.

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Coming back to the history

• The Nile Valley has been a site of continuous
  human habitation since at least the Palaeolithic
  era. Traces of these early peoples appear in the
  form of artefacts and rock carvings along the
  terraces of the Nile and in the desert oases. The
  earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic
  inscriptions appear during the predynastic period
  on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about
  3200 BC
• Egyptian culture has five thousand years of
  recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the
  earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt
  maintained a strikingly complex and stable
  culture that influenced later cultures of Europe,
  the Middle East and Africa

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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.

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religion

• Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians'
  lives, as visitors to the country quickly
  discover. The rolling calls to prayer that are
  heard five times a day have the informal effect
  of regulating the pace of everything from
  business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for
  its numerous mosque minarets and church towers.
  Holidays in Egypt have many classifications.
  There are a set of national holidays celebrated
  by the entire population. Since Islam is the
  state religion, the Islamic holidays are observed
  by all Egyptians. Christian holidays are not
  national holidays (except eastern Christmas),
  however the Christian population are permitted to
  observe these holidays.

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What is Egypt for you?

• Most people who think of Egypt think of
  antiquities, but Egypt offers much more.
  Certainly it is a prime location to see our great
  heritage from the ancient world, including
  Pyramids and wonderful temples, but it is also
  part of the Holy Land, and tours to Christian and
  other religious monuments are popular. Yet Egypt
  also offers nature and desert treks, great scuba
  diving and even golf, fishing and birding
  expeditions. One may choose to relax on the
  wondrous Egypt Red Sea or Sinai coasts, take in
  the high culture of Cairo, or even leisurely
  float down the Egyptian Nile on a luxurious river
  boat.