Egypt

Egypt (in Arabic, مصر‎, Miṣr, pronounced in Egyptian dialect: Maṣr; Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kēmi), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt (Arabic: جمهوريّة مصرالعربيّة, is a sovereign transcontinental country. It is located mostly in the far northeast of Africa, while in Asia it is located in the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by Sudan to the south, Libya to the west, and the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and Israel to the northeast. It is bordered to the north by the Mediterranean Sea off Turkey and to the east and southeast by the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia.

Most of its surface is made up of the Sahara desert. The Nile River crosses the desert from south to north, forming a narrow valley and a large delta at its mouth in the Mediterranean. These fertile lands are densely populated, concentrating the fourth largest national population in Africa. Nearly half of Egyptians live in urban areas, mostly in the densely populated centers of Cairo, its capital, and Alexandria.

It was the cradle of the ancient Egyptian civilization, which together with the Mesopotamian civilization was the origin of the current Western culture, decisively influencing the history of humanity. The remains of this civilization dot the country, such as the pyramids and the great sphinx, or the southern city of Luxor, which contains a large number of ancient remains, such as the Karnak temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is now a major political and cultural center in the Middle East and is considered a regional power. Its current form of government is the semi-presidential republic. In 2013 and 2014 it was under an interim government, formed after the 2013 coup that overthrew the country's first democratic president, Mohamed Morsi.

Etymology and toponymy

The ancient name of the country, especially during the Old Kingdom, was Kemet (Km.t), or 'black land', and derives from the fertile black silts deposited by the floods of the Nile, other than 'red earth' (Deshret, dsr.t), which referred to the predominantly desert landscape of Egyptian territory. The name became Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ (Kēmi and Kīmə) in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and was translated into Primitive Greek as Χημεία (Jemiah).

Miṣr (مصر) or Maṣr, the official Arabic name for Egypt, is of Semitic origin and means “border, boundary”. It is similar to the Hebrew name מִצְרַיִם mitzráyim, literally “two borders”, perhaps in reference to Upper and Lower Egypt. The older form appears in Akkadian as Miṣru and in Assyrian as Muṣur, miṣru / miṣirru / miṣaru , also meaning “border” or “border”. limit”, from the Semitic root ṣwr, indicating something narrow or narrow, with the prefix me.

It is very probable that the place name Egypt derives from the phonetic transcription of one of the names or epithets of Memphis, capital of ancient Kemet under the Third Dynasty, namely: Hout Ka-Ptah (ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ), which means “House of the ka [spirit] of Ptah”, alluding to the main temple dedicated to this god, which passed into Greek as Aígyptos, which, over time, designated first the neighborhood in which it was located, then the entire city, and later the kingdom. The intermediate form appears in Akkadian as Hikuptah. During the rule of the Lagids and, later, the Romans, the Egyptian language was called Coptic and its speakers, the native Egyptians who maintained their culture, became known as Copts, a term derived from the Greek Aigüptos, through the form ɣυπτίο (gyptio), which passed into Arabic as Qubt. A popular Greek etymology, cited by Strabo, derived Aigyptos from the expression Aἰɣαίου ὑπτίως, (Aigaiu hüptiōs), “beyond the Aegean”.

The name in Spanish and other western languages, Egypt, comes from the ancient Greek Αἴɣυπτος (Aígyptos), which would become Latin as Aegyptus, already attested in Mycenaean times as Gentile: “a-ku-pi-ti-yo”, that is, “the Egyptian”.

The name in their respective languages is considered by the Bible and Greek mythology to be an eponym, either of Mizraim, son of Ham, or of Egypt, son of Belus.

History

Ancient Egypt

The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Guiza, built during the Ancient Empire of Egypt.

The wealth provided by the fertile silt after the annual flooding of the Nile River, together with the absence of powerful neighboring towns due to its isolation, due to the fact that the Nile Valley is located between two large desert areas, allowed the development of a one of the first and most dazzling civilizations in the history of humanity.

The first settlers of Egypt reached the banks of the Nile, then a conglomerate of marshes and a focus of malaria, escaping from the desertification of the Sahara. The first communities made the country habitable, and were structured in regions called nomes. Over time and after times of agreements and disputes, the nomes were grouped into two proto-nations, called Upper and Lower Egypt around the year 5000 BC. C. Egypt is unified around the year 3100 B.C. C., from Pharaoh Menes (Narmer in his Egyptian name).

The history of ancient Egypt is divided into three empires with intervening periods of internal conflict and domination by foreign rulers. The Old Kingdom was characterized by the flourishing of the arts and the construction of immense pyramids. During the Middle Kingdom (2050-1800 BC), after a period of decentralization, Egypt experienced a period of splendor in its economy. In the New Kingdom (1567-1085 BC) the Egyptian monarchy reached its golden age, conquering neighboring peoples and expanding their domains under the leadership of the 18th Dynasty pharaohs. The last dynasty was overthrown in 343 B.C. C. by the Persians, who in turn were replaced by Greek and Roman rulers, in a period that began around the year 30 B.C. C. as a result of the defeat of Cleopatra and Marco Antonio in the battle of Actium, which brought seven centuries of relative peace and economic stability. From the mid IV century, Egypt was part of the Eastern Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire.

The formation of the modern state

Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo, built in the centuryIXd. C.

In 640 the Arab invasion took place, which took over the country's government despite the revolts of the then settlers, in 725. The Arabs introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the VII, and ruled for the next six centuries, with an interruption by the Tulunids, who declared Egypt's independence from the Abbasid Caliphate and held it for thirty-seven years. In the late X century, the Fatimids briefly took over the government. The time of Saladin will follow, which will mean a cultural and economic renaissance favored by the spirit of Jihad, a holy war in response to the Christian crusades. Between 1250 and 1517, the Mamluks, who were part of a local military caste, seized control of the government around 1250, defeated the Mongols in their unstoppable advance across Asia, but were unable to prevent their occupation of the country and control. of rule by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Under Ottoman rule, Egypt was relegated to a marginal position within the greater Ottoman Empire. Although the Mamluks regained power for a brief period, in 1798 Napoleon's army occupied the country. Nor did the French occupation last long, leaving little trace, although it marked the beginning of Egyptological studies on ancient culture.

The Battle of the Nile, 1798

After the departure of the French troops there was a series of civil wars between the Ottomans, Mamluks and Albanian mercenaries, until Egypt achieved independence in 1805, being named Kavalali Mehmet Ali Pasha, known as Mehmet Ali, who had come to Egypt as sultan. country as viceroy or I was worth to reconquer it in the name of the Ottoman Empire, and that he would lead a pro-Western foreign policy, undertaking a series of reforms that combined traditional strategies of centralization of power with the importation of European models for the creation of new military, educational, industrial and agricultural, including irrigation schemes, which were continued and expanded by his grandson and successor Ismail Pasha, the first Khedive.

After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important center of communications, but it also fell into heavy debt. The British took control of the government in the form of concessions around 1904, which was strongly protested, declaring independence again in 1925, with a new constitution and a parliamentary system. Saad Zaglul was elected Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924 and in 1936 he finalized the so-called Anglo-Egyptian treaty ^{[citation needed ]} .

Republic

Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970

Continuous British interference maintained political instability until a coup in 1952 forced King Faruq of Egypt to abdicate and led Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser to the government, as president of the new government. Nasser declared public ownership of the Suez Canal, which was an important improvement for the Egyptian treasury, although in 1956 he had to confront joint French, British and Israeli troops militarily, which tried to overthrow the government without success (crisis of suez). This military victory placed Nasser at the forefront of Middle Eastern leaders and as an example for the Arab world to follow in ridding itself of foreign interference. Between 1958 and 1961, Egypt, during the Nasser presidency, was part, together with Syria, of the United Arab Republic. The defeat of Arab forces by Israel in 1967 during the Six Day War deprived Egypt of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.

Following the war with Israel, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, followed by the 1978 signing of the Camp David agreement (by Nasser's successor, Anwar el-Sadat), Egypt recaptured the Sinai. This treaty was repudiated by the Arab world, and its consequences were the expulsion of Egypt from the Arab League and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country after the Iranian Revolution.

Sadat launches the policy of Infitah (openness), which aims to reduce the role of the state, attract foreign investment and promote relations with the United States. A class of nouveau riche is developing rapidly. In 1975 there were more than 500 millionaires in Egypt, but more than 40% of the population lived below the poverty line and slums were developing around the capital. Furthermore, the country racked up monumental debt during the Infitah years. To restructure it, the IMF called for the abolition of all subsidies to basic products, which led to riots in January 1977. The government involves the army, generating an unknown number of victims.

The reorientation of the economy led Sadat to seek support from traditional rural elites, whose influence had diminished under Nasserism. Farmers are evicted from disputed land. In the cities, to thwart Nasserian and Marxist organizations, Sadat has freed thousands of Islamist prisoners and granted them political freedoms. In 1972, the authorities had Islamist militants transferred in state vehicles to violently regain control of the universities and arrested left-wing student leaders.

Strengthened by this alliance with the government, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya gained influence and Egyptian society became Islamized, also by strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia. Finally, Gamaa al-Islamiy is divided into two factions: one in favor of the Sadat government, which wants to continue this Islamization through reforms, and another oriented towards terrorism. In the eighties, the Government favored the departure of the militants of this second faction towards Afghanistan, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia.

In 1981 Sadat was assassinated and succeeded by Hosni Mubarak, who upheld the policies of his predecessor. An adequate domestic policy has managed to defeat fundamentalism, despite some attacks against foreign tourists to damage the country's main source of income: tourism. After the Amman Summit in 1987, Egypt began to recover its previous relations with the Arab countries, especially with Saudi Arabia, which brought with it the rehabilitation of Mubarak and his government in the eyes of the rest of the Arab political leaders. Since then, Egypt has used its prestige to mediate between Israel and Palestine, since the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, and in 1993 it supported the signing of the agreements that led to the beginning of Palestinian autonomy, defending the formation of a future Palestinian state.

Hosni Mubarak pursues the policy of economic liberalization, in particular through the reduction of agricultural and consumer subsidies and the liberalization of prices. In 1992, he had the provisions governing land leases cancelled. Known as the "law to drive peasants off their land," this law, combined with other measures to separate the state from the economy, increases the discontent of poor rural populations, especially in Upper Egypt.

In 2004, the Egyptian movement for change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. However, it was not until February 2011 that Hosni Mubarak (who had been in power for thirty years) was overthrown through two weeks of demonstrations. The main and permanent focus of the rebellion was the famous and representative Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square) in the center of Cairo, where several hundred thousand protesters gathered daily. On July 3, 2013, the army staged a new coup, alleging corruption by President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Government and politics

• The same president can be voted again only once again.

Map of Egypt.

• Official name: Arab Republic of Egypt
• Legal system based on the Constitution of 1971.
• National legislation: bicameral system
• Electoral system: Democratic elections.
• Head of State: the president, elected by the people.
• The National Government: Council of Ministers, chaired by the Prime Minister.
• Main political parties: the Labour Socialist Party, the Liberal Socialist Party, New Wafd, the National Progressive Unionist Party.

Infantry soldiers of the Egyptian army.

Although power is apparently organized under a multi-party system, in practice for more than fifty years the president has been chosen in elections with a single candidate. Egypt also holds multi-party parliamentary elections on a regular basis. In February 2005, President Hosni Mubarak announced the reform of the law for the presidential election, so that in the 2010 elections there would be several candidates, for the first time since 1952, and the mandate is limited to seven years with only two legislatures. In 2007 a referendum was held in which it was approved to increase the presidential powers.

In the elections of November 28, 2010, Hosni Mubarak once again swept the first round of elections, leaving out the Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist opposition group. However, it seems clear that there were numerous irregularities in the vote. This was denounced by various media outlets and international entities. In June 2012, there were presidential elections for the first time since the deposition of Mubarak. The candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, was elected on June 24, 2012. He took office on June 30, 2012.

Abdelfatah Al-Sisi resigned from all his military posts and ran as a candidate due to the 2014 Egyptian presidential elections and given the great popular support he enjoyed. The Egyptian Electoral Commission announced in April that Al Sisi managed to register 188,930 valid signatures for his participation (with only 25,000 necessary). His only rival who managed to exceed the minimum was the leftist Hamdin Sabahi, leader of the Popular Current party, having obtained 31,555 endorsements. Thus, after the second coup carried out at the request of the people, and although President Abdelfatah Al-Sisi, as Defense Minister at the time, refused to stand in the presidential elections, he finally agreed to do so after the people's constant demand that will show up He is the current president of the country since June 8, 2014, thus being the ninth president since the declaration of the republic in the country on June 18, 1953 (65 years ago).

In 2019, demonstrations challenged the regime of Marshal al-Sisi; more than 4,400 people were arrested.

Draft of new Constitution

The interim government, backed by the military junta that emerged from the triumph of the coup in Egypt in 2013, will submit a new Constitution to a referendum in the first weeks of 2014, as an alternative to the Islamist Constitution of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. According to the analysis made by the professor of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Luz Gómez García, in it, among other things, the powers that the army already had in the time of Hosni Mubarak are maintained —it is no coincidence that this has praised the project—and prevents the Muslim Brotherhood, declared in late 2013 as a "terrorist organization" by the new Egyptian authorities.

Human rights

In terms of human rights, regarding membership of the seven bodies of the International Bill of Human Rights, which include the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Egypt has signed or ratified:

Status of major international human rights instruments

Egypt	International treaties
	CESCR		CCPR			CERD	CED	CEDAW		CAT		CRC			MWC	CRPD
	CESCR	CESCR-OP	CCPR	CCPR-OP1	CCPR-OP2-DP			CEDAW	CEDAW-OP	CAT	CAT-OP	CRC	CRC-OP-AC	CRC-OP-SC		CRPD	CRPD-OP
Pertenence
Signed and ratified, signed, but not ratified, neither signed nor ratified, without information, it has agreed to sign and ratify the body concerned, but also recognizes the competence to receive and process individual communications from the competent bodies.

Territorial organization

Egypt is divided into twenty-seven governorates or provinces (muhafazah; singular muhafazat). The Hala'ib triangle is under Egyptian administration, but it is disputed with the Sudanese government, who claims that this territory belongs to them and that the area of Bir Tawil would be the territory that would correspond to Egypt, which the latter denies; these disputed territories are located southeast of Egypt and northeast of Sudan.^{[citation needed]}

Figure of the 27 Egyptian governorates (2011).

Situation of the 27 Egyptian governorates currently demarcating the disputed territories.

Geography

Satellite view of Egypt

Egypt is located in the extreme northeast of the African continent, it has coasts on the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, the Mediterranean to the north, and the Red Sea and Palestine to the east. Its territory covers 1,001,450 km² of surface, which for comparative purposes corresponds to half that of Egypt or twice that of Spain. It is occupied in its vast majority by the Sahara desert, and furrowed by a single river, the Nile, which irrigates the only fertile land in the country and which has been the main source of wealth and has allowed the development of various cultures throughout of the ancient history of Egypt. It flows into the Mediterranean, forming a delta about 200 km long in a north-south direction and between Alexandria and Damietta in an east-west direction.

The climate is desert in most of the territory, with little rain (although in recent years the humidity has increased considerably in Cairo), with cold nights and very hot days. On the north coast, along the delta, it has a Mediterranean climate, with an average rainfall of 18 mm. Due to the inhospitable nature of the territory, the population settles mainly on the banks of the Nile, although some Mediterranean and Red Sea locations are also important. In Egypt is the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, and separates the main part of Egyptian territory from the Sinai Peninsula, which is bordered on the east by Israel.

The Egyptian government maintains twenty-one Natural Parks with a total area of 53,000 km², 5% of the national territory. The largest of them, the Elba National Park, to the south, with different ecosystems: Red Sea mangroves, twenty-two islands, coral reefs, coastal dunes, coastal salt marshes, coastal desert plains and the area of mountains: Jabal Elba from 1437 m altitude, Jabal Ebruq and Al Daeeb.

Hydrography

Ribera del río Nilo

Aerial view of the clouds in Egypt

Photograph from the ISS of the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula

Through Egypt it crosses the Nile River, which is the second longest in the world at 6,497 km long, after the Amazon River (6,800 km). Its course through Egypt is 1,550 km, and the Nile Delta area is 24,000 km². The Nile enters Egypt near Wadi Halfa on its southern border. It flows through the desert, fertilizing a valley 1.5 to 2 km wide to Aswan. At Aswan, it crosses the last cataracts and flows through the valley, which stretches from 5 to 20 km, to Cairo, located about 700 km away. It runs another 300 km to the sea, irrigating the wide Nile delta, branching into several arms through swampy terrain. The delta has a coastline with lagoons 250 km long.

The Valley and the Nile Delta are covered with very fertile soil, generated by silt deposited by the river over thousands of years in a 10 to 12 m thick layer. Every year, from August to October, the level of the Nile rose, and the river poured out its waters, flooding the valley and the delta. After the waters receded, it left behind the silt, which restored and fertilized the soil. After the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the flow is stable throughout the year. On the territory of Egypt, the Nile does not receive permanent tributaries. The climate that prevails over the valley is very hot and desert. Only the coast has frequent rains. The vegetation period, in general, is not interrupted, and the plants grow throughout the year. These natural conditions have made the Nile River Valley the largest oasis in the world.

In addition to land and sea water, Egypt is endowed with important mineral salts. The Sinai Peninsula and the coast have oil deposits. On this coast there are some phosphate zones. The west of the delta, on the Mediterranean coast, has rock salt.

Flora and fauna

The vegetation of Egypt is limited to the delta area and the Nile valley and desert oases. The most widespread is the coconut tree. Other native tree species are acacia, tamaris and carob. Trees that come from other continents are cypress, eucalyptus, mimosa, and various fruit trees. The alluvial soils of Egypt, especially in the delta, are suitable for the cultivation of various plants and fruits, including grapes, all kinds of vegetables, flowers such as lotus, jasmine and rose. Shrubs and grass for cattle grow with increasing frequency in desert areas. Papyrus, once present along the Nile, is now found in the southern tip of Egypt.

Due to the desert climate of Egypt, the local fauna is not very varied. There are gazelles in the desert, as well as foxes, hyenas, hippos, and wild boars, which inhabit different areas, mainly in the delta and mountains along the Red Sea. There are several species of reptiles. Crocodiles, previously living in Lower Egypt, now mostly live in the southern part of Upper Egypt. There are flamingos, eagles, vultures, pelicans. There are many insects and scorpions that live in desert areas. In the lakes and the Nile, there are about seventy species of fish.

Climate

Weather rates in Egypt

Egypt is in the subtropics. The climate is characterized by hot and dry summers and mild and stable winters, that is; warm period from May to September and cold from November to March. The highest temperature in both periods is caused by northerly winds. In coastal areas the average maximum temperature range is 37 °C and the minimum is 14 °C. Large temperature variations are the most common occurrences in the desert, with daily highs of 46 °C and lows of 6 °C at night. During winter the temperature at night drops to 0 °C. The areas with the highest humidity are found along the Mediterranean coast, and the average rainfall is 200 mm per year, while the average rainfall in Cairo is only 26 mm per year; in natural areas storms fall every few years. Precipitation decreases in a southerly direction, while the temperature increases. The kamsin (stormy, dry and hot desert wind) occurs in April and May and reaches speeds of up to 150 km/h.

Average climate parameters in Cairo, Egypt
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	31	36	40	42	44	48	44	42	44	41	37	33	48
Average temperature (°C)	18.9	20.4	23.5	28.3	32	33.9	34.7	34.2	32.6	29.2	24.8	22.3	27.73
Average temperature (°C)	13.8	14.9	16.9	21.2	24.5	27.3	27.6	27.4	26	23.3	18.9	15	21.38
Temp. medium (°C)	9	9.7	11.6	14.6	17.7	20.1	22	22.1	20.5	17.4	14.1	10.4	15.76
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	-1	-2	0	3	10	10	17	14	16	11	2	-2	-2
Total precipitation (mm)	5	3.8	3.8	1.1	0.5	0.1	0	0	0	0.7	3.8	5.9	24.7
Precipitation days (≥ 0.01 mm)	3.5	2.7	1.9	0.9	0.5	0.1	0	0	0	0.5	1.3	2.8	14.2
Hours of sun	217	232	279	300	310	360	372	341	300	279	240	186	3416
Relative humidity (%)	59	54	53	47	46	49	58	61	60	60	61	61	55.75
Source: World Meteorological Organization (UN). Voodoo skiesand Bing Weatherfor temperature records, BBC Weather for hours of sun

Ecology

Practically the entire country corresponds to the desert biome. WWF divides the territory of Egypt into nine ecoregions:

• Mediterranean arbustive steppe, a small enclave of Mediterranean forest located west of the Nile delta
• Flooded savannah of the Nile delta, in the delta and the lower valley of the Nile
• North Sahara steppe, north,
• Tropical desert and semi-desert of the Red Sea, on the coast of the Red Sea of the Sinai Peninsula
• Desert and xerophile mountain of Arabia and Sinai in the rest of Sinai
• Red Sea Coast Desert on the African Red Sea Coast
• Sahara Salobral, Siwa oasis and other Saharan wetlands
• Mount Xerophile of the Tibesti massif and Mount Uweinat on Mount Uweinat on the border with Libya and Sudan
• Desert of the Sahara, in the rest of the country

Economy

Evolution of GDP per capita in Egypt, 1820-2018.

The Suez Canal is an artificial maritime road of strategic and economic importance. The canal, excavated in the middle of the centuryXIX and with a length of 163 km, it unites the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and avoids the circumnavigation of the African continent.

Egypt is predominantly an agricultural country; and one of the most important crops is cotton, apart from the subsistence agricultural activity, since around 40% of the labor force is dedicated to agricultural or livestock activities. Egypt's economy was socialized following the promulgation of a series of laws in early 1961. The pattern of land ownership was greatly altered by the 1952 Agrarian Reform Decree, which limited individual farms to about 80 hectares, a revised figure. in 1961 to about forty hectares, and revised again to about twenty hectares in 1969.

The reforms copied from the Soviet regime in the agricultural field given in the period 1952 to 1961 and the construction with the communist help of the Aswan dam, have provoked an agricultural revolution that has increased production, and the lands requisitioned by the Government were distributed among the peasants (fellahin), but even today there are still great economic differences between the middle class and the farmers. Government programs have expanded cultivation areas through regeneration, irrigation (particularly since the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970), and the use of advanced technology such as mechanized equipment and chemical fertilizers have increased agricultural production. preceding; but at the same time these advances have unleashed multiple problems, especially environmental ones: By fertilizing with chemical products and not by the flooding of the river, the biological balance of the area is being affected, producing salinization of the soil and the appearance of new kinds of insects and parasites.

The yield of agricultural land in Egypt is among the highest in the world. Egypt is one of the world's leading producers of cotton commodities; the annual production of cotton fiber was about 300,000 metric tons, in the early 1990s. The warm climate and abundant water allow up to three harvests a year, giving abundant agricultural harvests. In the 1990s, the estimated annual value of production in millions of metric tons, such as rice (3.9), tomatoes (4.7), wheat (4.6), corn (5.2), sugar cane (3.1), bananas (2.5), potatoes (1.8), and oranges (1.7). A wide variety of other fruits and vegetables are also grown.

Egypt's main livestock industry is the raising of pack animals. Livestock in the early 1990s included some three million head of cattle, three million buffalo, 4.4 million sheep, 4.8 million goats, 1.6 million donkeys, and forty million fowl. corral.

Egypt has important oil and gas deposits, but the most exploited industry is tourism, since the pyramids and relics of this ancient civilization attract many people every year. It is one of the most stable economies in the region, with a per capita GDP of US$4,274 (2004 WHO data).

Egyptian pound.

The monetary unit is the Egyptian pound, which is divided into 100 piastres; runs with the following values:

• Tickets in Libras: 200, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1.
• Tickets in Piastres: 50, 25, 10 and 5.
• Libras coins: 1
• Coins in Piastres: 50, 25, 10 and 5.

Spanish currency of Carlos III that carries an inscription with the legend Misr (Egypt).

At different times in its history, Egypt allowed the circulation of foreign coins in its territory, especially the pieces of eight Spanish reales. So popular were these coins that during the 18th centuries and XIX in the Grand Bazaar in Cairo were officially listed for twenty qirsh or piastres. The first who allowed the legal circulation of foreign coins in this territory was Sultan Selim III. In this way, an overseal bearing the word "MISR" (Egypt) was stamped on pieces of eight reales of King Carlos III and Carlos IV. Coins from other Spanish-American mints, Maria Teresa of Austria talers, and some pieces of five French francs that remained in Egypt after the Napoleonic wars (1798-1802) are also known with this countermark. Various coins were also marked during Mamluk rule, and later in the 19th century they were counter-marked with date and mint mark “ MY R'S". During the XX century in the Grand Bazaar, pieces of two and eight reales were minted with different dates (1920) to circulate for value of twenty-three piastres (two reales). In Egypt the Spanish royals were known by the name "Abu Mafta", since they believed that the columns of Plus Ultra were two cannons.

Over the past forty years, the Egyptian government has adopted strategies ranging from a Soviet-order economy to a market economy, with several variants in between, with moderate socialist tendencies prevailing last in an attempt to make the country prosperous. There is a strong public sector whose inefficiency the Government tries to combat.

The most productive industries are textiles, fertilizers, and rubber and cement products. There is some heavy industry and several automobile assembly plants.

The country's main trading partners are the United States and some of the European Union countries (Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom). Sweeping changes in the former Soviet bloc, which was Egypt's main market, have had a major impact on the economy, though the country has since become the second country to receive US aid, after Israel; between 1994 and 2004 Egypt received about US$2 billion per year in aid from the United States.

In 1990 Egypt had serious economic imbalances, both internal and external: an industrial structure organized by Nasser of public ownership, oversized, obsolete and with very low productivity. An agrarian sector rigidly controlled by the state with intervened prices and deficits. Lastly, a foreign sector in deficit and based on exports of energy products, remittances from emigrants, income from the Suez Canal and tourism, all of which had supported development in the 1970s, but was sensitive to the new terrorism of Islamic fundamentalists. Likewise, the public deficit was practically unsustainable and a generator of inflation, and the country could hardly cope with the situation that arose after the explosion of the debt crisis in the eighties, which so seriously affected almost all developing countries.. In 1991, the government drew up a program and proposed several measures:

• Privatize 314 public companies.
• Improve agriculture, which generates about 20% of Gross National Product, with an ambitious project: the Toshka channel, opened in January 1997, whose purpose is to make an alternative and parallel delta to the Nile valley that will recover land from the desert.
• Create industrial, mining and tourism projects as well as new settlements in Toshka to reduce the population density of the Nile shores.

The regime of Abdelfatah Al-Sisi is oriented towards an austerity policy that consists, in particular, of reducing subsidies for energy and electricity, imposing VAT and increasing the price of Cairo metro tickets. This form of regressive taxation places a heavier burden on the working and middle classes than before; on the contrary, corporate income tax has been reduced. In November 2018, a new austerity plan was adopted, which resulted, in particular, in the freezing of the salaries of civil servants. The number of recipients of food subsidies has decreased by 3 million as a result of these reforms.

Debt reached a record level in June 2018 ($92.64 billion), representing a 17% increase in a single year. The debt is, in particular, a consequence of the burden on the military budget. (arms imports increased by 215% in 2013-2017 compared to 2008-2012) and interest payments, which reached 31% of the annual budget for 2016-2017, and 38% in 2018. On the other hand, investment in education, health and infrastructure is insufficient. Around 60% of the Egyptian population lives in poverty or precariousness, according to a report published by the World Bank in April 2019. General living conditions tend to deteriorate. Poverty has increased by more than 11% in the country's largest cities (Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez). The poorest half of the population only benefits from 17 to 18% of GDP.

Tourism

The set of temples of Abu Simbel, south of the country.

Tourism is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign exchange earnings, both from the tourists themselves and from the significant investments made by international hotel chains. Due to the nature of the tourist activity, it generates a very significant number of jobs, which include personnel from: tourism agencies, hotels, manufacturing and marketing of handicrafts, transportation, among others. Three main areas where tourism activity is located can be identified:

• Cairo and its surroundings: the Pyramids of Guiza, along with the Great Sphinx (on the outskirts of the city) are the main attractions, complemented by the treasures of the Cairo Museum that exhibits the treasure of Tutankamon, and the Jan el-Jalili bazaar (Khan el Khalili).
• The southern zone: with Luxor, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel and other archaeological riches, as well as cruises through the Nile.
• The coast of the Red Sea and the southern area of the Sinai Peninsula: with sandy coasts, is a place famous for the richness and variety of its underwater fauna and flora, being a center of submarinism of great renown. The spa of Sharm el-Sheij is a reference point in the area, which is served by numerous direct flights from Europe.

Agriculture

Egyptian peasants

The representation of agriculture in GDP has been declining in recent years; in 2020 it represented 12% of GDP, a figure that contrasts with 26% in 1985. Before industrialization, most exported products were agricultural, but that number drops significantly after 1998 to only 6%. The most important agricultural products are chocolate, cereals, fruits, vegetables and fodder. The Area of arable land is considerably smaller, but very fruitful. It occupies the space around the entire valley and the West Nile delta. Fishing is an important economic sector. Large amounts of fish are found in the Nile River, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean.

Industry and mining

Industrial products and services (mining, manufacturing, and construction) made up 37.6% of GDP in 2008. The main products are textiles, chemical products, metals, and petroleum products. The new economic policy has led to the creation of private companies for the production of automobiles, electronics and medicine. Most of these factories are concentrated around the center of the two largest cities: Cairo and Alexandria and in the industrial area along the Suez Canal.

Oil is the most important commodity and a large and important source of income. The Government in the 1980s encouraged the production of natural gas to supply domestic energy consumers. Natural gas began to be exported in the 1990s. The main oil and gas fields are located in the Red Sea and the Libyan desert. As for other mineral wealth, Egypt has abundant phosphate ores, salt, limestone, and iron ore.

Egypt produces enough energy to meet the needs of all local consumers. The main sources of power are of hydroelectric origin, and are mostly based near Aswan. Quantities of oil and natural gas also supply about half of consumers' energy requirements.

Suez Canal

The bridge of the Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is an artificial canal at sea level, considered the most important shipping hub in the Middle East, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after ten years of construction, it allows transport by boat between Europe and Asia without having to go around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfiq in the city of Suez. Ismailia is located on its west side, 3 km from the midpoint.

The channel was 193.30 km long, 24 m deep and 205 m wide in 2010. It consists of a 22 km north access channel, the 162.25 km channel proper, and the access channel 9 km south. The canal is a single lane with crossing points at the "Ballah By-Pass" and the Great Bitter Lake. It does not contain locks, sea water flows freely through the canal. In general, the channel north of Bitter Lake flows north in winter and south in summer. The southern part of the lakes change with the Suez tide.

On August 26, 2014, a proposal was made to open a new Suez canal. Work on the New Suez Canal was completed in July 2015. The canal was officially inaugurated with a ceremony attended by different international leaders on August 6, 2015, in accordance with the budget submitted for the project.

Basic sanitation and drinking water

The supply of drinking water increased in Egypt between 1990 and 2000 from 89% to 100% in urban areas and from 39% to 93% in rural areas, despite rapid population growth. In this period, Egypt managed to eradicate the habit of defecating in latrines in rural areas and invested in the necessary infrastructure to do so. Access to drinking water sources in Egypt is now virtually universal with an estimate of 99%. Around half of the population is connected to wastewater collection systems.

Due to low garbage collection coverage, around 30 to 120 children die each year from viral diseases such as diarrhoea, dengue fever and malaria.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Air transportation

Egypt has two airlines for internal flights: Egyptair and Air Sinai. The distances are short and the tickets are affordable. Flights are frequently canceled for various reasons. Currently there are twenty airports, the most important being Cairo International Airport, where 190,000 flights are carried out with more than 13 million passengers.

Egyptair flies daily between Cairo and Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Hurghada; twice a week to the Kharga oases, and makes about 300 weekly flights connecting Egypt with the main cities of the world. Air Sinai flies from Cairo to El Arish Sharm el Sheikh, Saint Catherine's Monastery and Tel Aviv.

River transport

Falucas surging the Nile

There are eight ports with international traffic, Alexandria being the main one, along with Dammietta, Port Said, Suez and a few others on the Red Sea.

No less than 60 cruise ships navigate the waters of the Nile River. In addition to dining cruises, there are five-day, four-night cruises (between Luxor and Aswan, three-, four-, and five-star) and three-day cruises (via Lake Nasser). In June these boats go to the slipway in Cairo for repair and return to Luxor in September. Feluccas are very common sailing boats on the river.

Public transportation

The railway network is one of the oldest, with 9,826 km of tracks connecting 75% of the cities throughout the country. Egyptian trains are comfortable, punctual, fast and cheap. They link Cairo with the Nile valley, the delta and the canal cities. There are four types of service: first, second, third class and Wagon-Lits (sleeping car to Luxor and Aswan). Tickets can be booked at travel agencies or at the station itself. The stations have special windows for each class of ticket.

Egyptian taxi drivers have a reputation for being reckless behind the wheel, and meters are rarely used, so it is necessary to indicate the destination, agree on a price, and pay on arrival. Taxi services are usually found at Peugeot stations, and do not start until they have filled all their seats. They travel both within the city and to any point in Egypt, including the oases. Most try to locate themselves in Ramses Square, Tharir Square and at the Cairo airport, to pick up tourists.

Egypt has a bus network that runs throughout the country. They are cheap, and the system was modified to guarantee each traveler their seat. There are city buses in big cities like Cairo and Alexandria.

Cairo Metro Signal

The Cairo Metro is clean, comfortable, and runs throughout central Cairo with stops at half-kilometre intervals. Metro stations are indicated by a black octagonal sign with a red M. Almost the entire route runs along the Nile, along the so-called Corniche.

Automobile

In the cities traffic is congested, especially in Cairo, where it is a major problem. On the road there are few limitations, and the tranquility is total, although controls abound.

The road network consists of 50,300 km, including highways and paved roads. The most important is the belt that connects Cairo with Alexandria, where 70% of the movement of vehicles is concentrated. The government plans to build a major highway linking Cairo and Assiut along the east bank of the Nile and roads connecting Cairo with Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

The highways from Cairo to Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez are all four-lane, and most of those that cross the desert linking the major cities are paved except for the roads to Hurghada and Upper Egypt, They are still very dangerous, especially at night. In total, the road network reaches 50,300 km. Repairs are not expensive and it is very easy to find a mechanic. There are car rental agencies in the main hotels.

Media

Came in Cairo seen from the Cairo Tower, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.

Newspapers and magazines

• Al Ahram (the pyramids) is the oldest and most prestigious newspaper in Egypt. Founded in 1875, it is published in Arabic.
• The Ajbar (news), Arabic newspaper
• The Gumhuriya (the republic), Arab newspaper.
• Le Progrés Egyptien (Egyptian progress), French daily
• Journal d’Egypte (period of Egypt), French daily.
• Cairo Today is a monthly English magazine with articles on history, art, architecture, business and general aspects of Egypt. It admits international subscriptions.

Radio

• Egyptian radio services began in 1934.
• The European Radio Cairo station is on the FM 95 of the dial from 0700 hours.
• On FM 89.5 they broadcast classical music programs.

Telecommunications

Communications networks are modern: telephone, internet, telegraph, telex and fax services are available. When sending a message to Egypt, telexes and faxes tend to be more reliable than telegraphs, because wires don't always deliver. Private courier companies deliver in most Egyptian cities. The Egyptian postal service varies in reliability: surface mail is very slow, so air is often used for international communications. Within Egypt, the express mail service provided by the Egyptian National Postal Organization is considered reliable.

Demographics

Egypt is the most populous Arab country, with more than 99,400,000 inhabitants (2019), 9,300,000 of whom reside in Cairo, which is the most populous city in all of Africa. Alexandria, next to the Nile delta, is the second most populous city in the country with more than 4,800,000 inhabitants, also being among the ten largest cities on the continent. About 98% of the population is concentrated along the Nile, whose fertile banks represent 3.5% of the surface. The population density on both banks of the Nile is one of the highest in the world and its growth is considered one of the country's serious problems.

Density of population in Egypt (inhabitants per km2)

Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people. Mediterranean (such as Greek and Italian) and Arab influences appear in the north, and Nubian populations in the south. Different theories have been proposed about the origins of the Egyptians, however none are conclusive and the most widely accepted is that Egyptian society was the result of a mix of Asian and East African people who moved to the Nile Valley after the of the ice Most of modern Egyptian society is heterogeneous but maintains cultural ties to ancient Egyptian society, which has always been considered rural and the most populous compared to neighboring demographics. The Egyptian people spoke only five languages of the Afroasiatic family (previously known as Hamito-Semitic).

Ethnic groups

In Egypt there are more than 34 ethnic groups.

Egyptians are mostly descendants of the ancient Egyptians, the population that settled in Northeast Africa. About 4,000 Islamic Arab horsemen entered Egypt. Arab immigrants began to mix with the local population, resulting in marriages between the Arab and indigenous communities. There are also descendants of other invading peoples, such as the Romans, Greeks and Turks.

Indigenous Nubian groups live in northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Many Nubian villages were flooded by Lake Nasser near Aswan, after which their inhabitants moved to Aswan and Cairo. The government does not recognize them as an ethnic minority. There are other ethnic minorities in Egypt, such as the Arab Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula, of the Arabian desert, and the Berber population of the Siwa oasis. A small number of Greek, Italian, Jewish and other Christian minorities mix with the local Muslim population.

Egypt has a population of 500,000 to 3,000,000 refugees and asylum seekers. There are about 70,000 Palestinian refugees and 150,000 Iraqi refugees. The largest number of refugees comes from Sudan, estimated at between 2 and 5 million.

Language

Although Egypt had its own languages that evolved during the Ancient Egyptian and Classical Ancient Egyptian periods, and later Coptic, these three languages were replaced in the latter period by their current official language, Egyptian Arabic, a language that has become maintained as official since the middle ages, modern and contemporary. The Egyptian version of the Arabic language (masri) is dominant in the Arab world, thanks to the exceptional importance that Egypt has in media and education in this language.

Egyptian Arabic has adopted elements of the Egyptian language since pre-Islamic times, as well as Turkish, French, and English.

In the Nubian region the Old Nubian language is spoken. The Berber language is used in various settlements in the oases of the Western Desert. Coptic Christians use the Coptic language to serve the liturgy. English and French are taught in Egyptian schools.

Languages of Egypt

• Officers
  • National languages
    • Egyptian Arab
    • Coptic language (Coptic Orthodox Church and Coptic Catholic Church), sometimes called Egyptian language.
  • Non-national languages
    • Arab bedawi, mainly on the Sinai peninsula.
    • Siwi language, mainly inhabitants of Siwa oasis and nearby villages, located in the desert of Libya, near the border with Libya.
    • Beya language, mainly Egyptian Arabian desert.
    • Domari language, kind of Romani language spoken in the Middle East, mainly mostly live in northern Cairo.
• No officers
  • Koiné (Orthodox Church of Alexandria) Greek dialect spoken in Egypt.
  • English language Egypt was occupied by the British from 1882 to 1952, currently being studied as a foreign language in schools along with French.
  • French language is currently studied as a foreign language in schools along with English.

Religion

(2018)

The official religion in Egypt is Sunni Islam, to which 85% of the population belongs. The second largest religious group are Coptic Christians, who account for 10% of the total population. 1% corresponds to other Christian religious minorities, such as Armenian, Catholic and Protestant Christians. According to a census published in 2022, there were about 14,000 Christian converts from Islam in 2010.

• Main Christian branches present in Egypt
  • Coptic Orthodox Church
  • Coptic Catholic Church
  • Orthodox Church of Alexandria
  • Presbyterian Evangelical Church of Egypt

Jews also lived in Egypt, although in small numbers of great economic importance. They left Egypt after 1956, when the armed forces of Israel, France and Britain attacked the country.

In the early 1980s it belonged to soldiers from Islamic groups and Islamic Jihad. In 1992 he began a campaign of armed violence, centered in Cairo and Upper Egypt, whose goal was to establish a government based on strict Islamic law. The victims of the violence were mainly members of the Coptic Church, government officials and tourists. Human Rights Organization determined that the Egyptian government discriminated against the Coptic Church. Laws regarding church building and the open practice of religion have recently eased, but major construction work on churches still requires government permission.

Standard of Life

Typical Nile Valley houses around Luxor.

There are two main classes. The first are the elite, with a Western-influenced education, upper and middle class. To the second group, which is much more humble, belong the farmers, the urban population and the working class. There are huge differences in lifestyle, habits, food and clothing. In 1970 the government has introduced liberal economic policies known as the "open door". This policy is more demanded by the first group, because it connects with culture and foreign capital.

In the past, women from the lower classes worked in the fields with their husbands in order to support their families, while women from the upper classes stayed at home because their husbands supported the family. family. Today, many women work outside the home, wearing headscarves to remind themselves that they are Muslim.

The most common dishes in Egyptian cuisine are molojeya (a traditional local herb prepared as a soup),[mahshi] kushari (paste with onion and various herbs), fresh fruits and vegetables. Tea or coffee is the usual food supplement. Rich Egyptians also tend to include European dishes in their gastronomy, mainly French cuisine.

Education

University of al-Azhar, Cairo.

Rapid population growth has overwhelmed the education system. The classrooms are full, from primary schools to universities, although the schools lack adequate material to do a good job of education. Many children attend school irregularly, or do not attend because they have to work. It is estimated, in 2005, that 71.4% of the population knows how to write, although divided into 83% of men and 59.4% of women.

Statistics

• Expenditure in education: 4.7% of GDP.
• Analphabetism: 32.8 % in males and 56.4 % in females.
• Third grade schooling: 28.5 %
• 76.5 per cent of students are enrolled in state schools compared to 23.5 per cent in private schools.
• Number of universities and higher education institutions: 192 faculties.
• Number of schools: 15,861 primary schools, 1,912 elementary schools and 6,202 preparatory schools.

Health

The 2006 report on health in the world published by the WHO, shows the following data:

• Life expectancy at birth male/female: 68.0/71.32 years (in 2015).
• Healthy life expectancy at birth for men/women: 57.8/60.2 years (in 2002).
• Infant mortality male/female: 36/36 per 1000 hectares.
• Male/female adult mortality: 239/158 per 1000 hectares.
• Total health expenditure per capita: $235 (in 2003).
• Total health expenditure: 5.8 per cent of GDP (in 2003).
• Doctors: 38 485 (in 2003) or 5.3 per 10 000 inhabitants.
• Health facilities: Egypt has a total of 109 700 beds between public and private hospitals in cities and first aid rooms in the towns. There are 208 central public hospitals and 126 in rural areas, all of them with free care.

In the main cities of the country there are doctors with a good level, some of them trained abroad and who speak French and English. As far as treatment in hospitals is concerned, it is acceptable for treatment of ailments and minor infections. In serious cases and in those that require surgery, it is best to travel abroad, since hospital equipment is quite deficient. It is common for hospitals and doctors to demand payment in cash in advance if there is no backing from an insurance company and medical expenses are usually very expensive for foreigners. It is also recommended that said medical insurance include repatriation for emergencies.

In the tourist boats that navigate the Nile, there is usually no doctor on board, although they do usually have a first aid kit where you can find remedies for the most common minor ailments. On the tourist route of the Nile, only in Luxor and Aswan are hospitals with limited guarantees.

There are contagious diseases:

• Malaria, malignant falciparum and benign vivax, which exists from June to October in the area of El-Fayum. There is no risk in Cairo or Alexandria.
• Cholera, outside the cities, due to poor water treatment.
• The rage is not eradicated.
• The bilharzia (eschosomiasis) is common. It is a parasite that lives in stagnant or muddy waters, especially at some points of the Nile, with a risk of skin and eye infection. The Egyptian sea beaches have good health conditions and the pools are treated with chlorine and are kept safe in the cities and resorts.

Ablation

More than 90% of the female population undergoes genital cutting, according to the Ministry of Health survey (2015). The 2015 survey, conducted by various national and foreign institutions for the Egyptian Ministry of Health, also shows that this practice is more widespread among women from rural areas (95%) than from urban areas (86%). More than half of the women were mutilated between the ages of seven and 10, according to the survey in Egypt, where the practice is a strong tradition among both Muslims and Christians.

Culture

Ancient Egypt

The Bust of Nefertiti, of the sculptor Tutmose, is a masterpiece of the art of Ancient Egypt.

The Egyptians built monuments and funerary complexes for their pharaohs and great temples, with obelisks in which they engraved the titles and praises of the pharaoh, with paintings representing his divine or earthly life. They also sculpted large stone statues representing gods and pharaohs, and small pieces of goldsmithing, with metals and precious stones, and handicrafts made in stone, faience or delicately carved in wood. They developed their own writing system, hieroglyphics, with its variants: hieratic writing and later demotic, simplifying their spelling. The Egyptian was one of the first peoples to enter history, leaving to posterity treatises on medicine, mathematics, and mythological and historical accounts, written on papyrus or engraved on stone or wood.

Ruins of the Derr Temple in 1960.

During the Pharaonic period, Egyptian culture maintained its fundamental characteristics until the time of Roman domination, culturally influencing the entire western Mediterranean. The last priests of Isis, on the island of File, maintained her cult until it was prohibited by the Roman Emperor Justinian I, in the year 535 of the common era. Alexandria, capital of the Ptolemaic Dynasty – home to the famous Library – was for centuries the most important cultural center in the Mediterranean and a preferred place of stay and study for many great thinkers of antiquity.

Byzantine Egypt (395-642)

Christian Egypt: The Coptic Church was founded in Egypt in the 1st century century. Its name derives from the Greek word (Egyptian), transformed into gipt and later into qibt, from which it derived the respective Arabic word. Thus, the word Coptic simply means 'Egyptian'. The Christianity imposed by the Roman emperors replaced the previous beliefs until the time of Islamic domination. Its patriarchs exercised considerable influence over the rest of Christendom. The artistic manifestations of this Egyptian period are called Coptic art. The Coptic language is the descendant of the language spoken in Ancient Egypt. It fell out of use in the 16th century, although it is still used as a liturgical language. It has its own alphabet.

Islamic Egypt

After the Arab invasion, the Egyptian culture has been diluted in the Arab: this means the end of sculpture and painting, but a great development of literature and the protection of science: Maimonides lived in Egypt as refugee when he was banished from Córdoba.

Architecture

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built in commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria

Imported Islamic art developed with local influences, especially from the Fatimids, and has created architectural ensembles of great beauty, which can be seen in Cairo, in the Aswan necropolis, the Rosetta houses and mosques, etc.

Ornaments of wood, metal, and rock crystal differentiate Egyptian architecture from the rest of Islamic architecture. Under the Mamluks, minarets with overlapping shafts and domes decorated with gallons developed, and different buildings appeared: funerary mosques and madrasas. From this period are the Baybars Mosque (circa 1269) or the Sultan Hasan Madrasa (circa 1360). Enamelled glass specialists made lamps that were sold all over the world. The arrival of the Ottomans brought the imposition of the Istanbul models.

At the end of the 20th century, the state built a great library to resemble that of Alexandria.

Music

Music has been a part of Egyptian life since ancient times, although there is no writing about it, it is supposed to be an oral tradition. Among the different instruments, the sistrum, the menat, among others, are known. During the lágida dynasty the hydraulic organ and the flute arose. In 1930, the Institute of Oriental Music was created in Cairo, which protects a large number of composers who coordinate traditional music with that of European origin. Its main exponents are: Uum Kulthum, Farid Al Atrash, George Abdo, Mohammad Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Hafez, and the most current Amr Diab, Hakim, Ehab Tawfik, among others.

Cinema

The first modern Arab drama was staged in Cairo in the year 1870. The film appeared in the 1930s in Egypt, and has been on the rise ever since. Cairo is considered the &# 34;Hollywood of the Middle East", which is held every year the International Film Festival. The Egyptian film industry is considered the largest in the Arab world. A nucleus of producers formed in Alexandria who created the foundations of Egyptian cinema: dramas and current affairs, which in the 1930s moved to Cairo.

Soad Hosny, one of the most popular actresses of the golden age of Egyptian cinema.

The first Egyptian film was Laila (1927), produced and starring actress Aziza Amir. Talkies arrived in 1932, and the premiere of the first film was a failure, due to technical errors. We had to wait until 1936, with the premiere of Wedad. The genres of modern Egyptian cinema are varied, musical, realistic cinema, with a cinematographic teaching that is the best in the Middle East, although with poor technical means.

Literature

The country hosts two important cultural fairs that revolve around literature and are international in scope, such as the Alexandria International Book Fair and the Cairo Fair, the latter being one of the most important in the region.

Pop Culture

Egypt's media industry has flourished, with more than thirty satellite channels and over a hundred films produced each year.

Egyptian media is highly influential throughout the Arab world, attributed to large audiences and increasingly free from government control. Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution; However, many laws still restrict this right.

Dance

Egypt is often considered the home of belly dancing or "Arabian dance". Egyptian belly dance has two main styles - raqs baladi and raqs sharqi. There are also numerous folk and character dances that can be part of a Belgian-style dancer's repertoire, as well as the modern shaabi street dance it shares.

Gastronomy

Ful medames served with slices of cooked egg and Vicia fabas

As for its typical foods, there is a range of cold starters of oriental origin that are served in numerous small bowls, among which are:

• tabbouleh, parsley salad and semola of wheat of acid flavor;
• kobeibameat, fish and nuts;
• baba ghannoush, puree of eggplants with garlic;
• kibbeh, meat meat meat meat meat meat meats fried and wheat semolina;
• bastermaSmoked cecina;
• sambousek, sour empanadas;
• hummus bi tahina, chickpeas in puree with sesame paste;
• wara annab, parra leaves filled with different ingredients;
• betingan, cobbled eggplant slices.

Other typical dishes are:

Kushari, traditional dish of Egyptian gastronomy

• kosharysuperimposed layers of macaroni, rice and lentils with tomato sauce;
• fattah, layers of dried bread soaked in broth, rice and meat seasoned with garlic and vinegar and covered with yogurt, nuts and raisins;
• mouloukhiyaspinach soup;
• hamam, chicks filled with grains of green wheat or rice;
• shish kebab, sprout of lamb meat;
• koftah, rolls of chopped meat from lamb to coal;
• gambarigiant shrimps with garlic sauce from Alexandria;
• mahshi, rice with meat that is accompanied with parra leaves, tomatoes, eggplants or green peppers.

All these dishes are served with pilau, rice with vegetables.

The desserts preferred by the Egyptians are:

• om ali, mixture of bread or pasta with milk, nuts, coconut and raisins that are taken hot (e.g. rice with milk);
• aish is saraila, bread loaf with softened honey with sugar syrup;
• baklawa, dough filled with walnuts aromatized with watermiel or with an azahar infusion;
• konafa, carnages baked with sugar, honey and nuts.

Typical Egyptian drinks are:

• karkadee, comes from the hibiscus flower and can be taken hot or cold;
• shai, strong taste black tea and variety known as shai nana, served with mint leaves;
• ahwa, Turkish coffee; mango juices, guava, banana, orange, strawberry, carrot, lime, tomato, cane sugar, pomegranate and lemon;
• tamarhindi, infusion made with the dry pulp of the tamarindo;
• irssous, liquorice water;
• Erfa, cinnamon drink that is served hot and covered with nuts;
• naMint.

Most of the Egyptian population professes Islam and does not consume alcoholic beverages, but there is an important Coptic (Christian) minority that maintains the thousand-year-old tradition of its preparation, cultivation and consumption. Among the alcoholic beverages, the following stand out: ersoos, liquor with a strong flavor and smell; zahlab, considered the "drink of the gods" since it is made of a plant similar to Jamaica with alcohol, which only grew around the valley of the kings; yasoon, flavored with anise. The wines include: Chateu Giniclis, red. A good variety of whites: Rubi d'Egyte, rosé. They are not of excellent quality but they are acceptable.

Tourist meals are usually accompanied with water. The authorities recommend that it be mineral water and that the bottle be opened in the presence of the tourist. They also recommend drinking the local beer Stella (or imported beers).

Sports

Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah, raising the European Super Cup of 2019 with Liverpool FC.

Soccer is the most popular sport in Egypt. At the club level, Al-Ahly and Zamalek stand out, two of the most successful clubs locally and internationally. Al-Ahly was chosen as the best African club of the XX century, as well as being the one with the most international titles, with 19 trophies.

The national team is known by the nickname pharaohs. It is the strongest team on its continent, having won the African Cup of Nations seven times, being the one that has won it the most times. In addition, they have qualified for the World Cup twice, in 1990 and in 2018. Soccer player Mohamed Salah is the most successful player Egypt currently has.

Basketball is another sport that has also brought success to the country, where the local team has managed to win the Afrobasket five times.

Notable people