Egypt Geography
The area of the Arab Republic of Egypt is more than 1,000,000 km². Its borders stretch from the Mediterranean in the North, where the Nile meets the sea, to the borders of Sudan , Libya and over the Sinai Peninsula to the borders of Israel and by sea, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Nile (the world’s longest river with its 6,600 km) has created through tens of thousands of years, a fantastic fertile landscape on its banks where approximately 95 % of Egypt’s population lives.
History
Remains dating from the Egyptian Paleolithic period are some of the oldest in the world, but it is of course the pharonic era that made Egypt famous and unique.
Egypt, or Kemet as it was called in pharaonic time, was unified around 3000 B.C. Old Kingdom, or the Pyramid Age, lasted from 2650 – 2200 B.C., and during this period most of the country’s 90 pyramids were built.
During the Middle Kingdom (2000 – 1700 B.C.) an emporium was started being built stretching from South Sudan to Iraq and further. This colonization caused an invasion from the east by the Hyksos, which ruled Egypt from 1700-1550 B.C. Leaving behind the introduced horse and carriage that Egyptians learned to master.
The pharaohs of the New Kingdom 1550 – 1000 B.C. ruled from Luxor in the south where you can find their exquisite tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the “Pharonic” Vatican, The Temple of Karnak.
In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great came to Egypt starting the Greek Ptolemaic Era. The Romans and later Byzantium took over after winning the battle ofActium in 30 B.C. Later on, Cleopatra VII committed suicide – using snakebite, which leads the holy family to flee to Egypt. St Marc came to Christianize the Egyptians, leaving behind him one of the first Christian communities in the world, the Coptic Church.
In 642 A.D. the Arabs overruled Egypt. During the coming hundreds of years Cairo and Egypt was alternately controlled from Damascus, Baghdad and from different clans like the Tulunfamily, the Fatimides, the Ayoub family and the Mamelouks.
By 1517, Egypt became a part of The Ottoman Empire until the invasion of Napoleon in 1798. From 1805 begins modern Egyptian history under the reign of the Mohamed Ali family. Cotton was starting to be cultivated, railroads and the Suez Canal were built, and modernization had struck Egypt. In 1952 Farouk the last king of Egypt, was overthrown in the revolution led by Gamal Abd El Nasser.
By coming to Egypt, you will hear more about Cheops, Ramses, Saladin, Nefertiti, and Sadat and Amon personalities!
Clothing
Egypt has a long summer, from April until the beginning of November with temperatures during daytime between 25° and 40° C. Daytime temperatures during winter vary between 15 and 28 degrees. Temperatures in Upper Egypt (south) are usually 5°C higher than Cairo and the rest of the north of Egypt.
Language
Arabic is the Official Language, while English and French are widely spoken by educated classes.
Egyptian food
Egyptian food is very rich and tasty, the Egyptians eat a substantial amount of bread and drink too much water with their meals. Typical Egyptian bread is made of leavened wheat flour in hollow round flat loaves. In rural areas, bread is made of unleavened maize flour.
Egyptians are mostly rice eaters, although macaroni often appears in their meals. In the average Egyptian home breakfast is substantial meal consisting of more than one of the following items.
Foul Medamis(Baked Beans), Gibna Beida (White soft cheese), Eggs (Beid), Pasterma (CornedBeef ), Halawa (Sweet Sesame Cake), Jam (Meraba) or honey (Assal Abyad) and tea (Shai) or Coffee (Qahwa).
In the country side breakfast sometimes includes, Fitir Messhaltet (A very rich wheat flour pie, served with either sour cheese or honey).
Population
The population of approximately100 million people is concentrated along the Nile, on 5% of Egypt’s total area. 22 million people or more live in Cairo and its suburbs. Other large cities are Alexandria, Mansoura, Tanta, Zagazig, Ismailia, Suez, Port Said, Aswan and Luxor ).
Religion
Around 89 % are Muslims and approximately 11% are Coptic Christians .
Voltage
The voltage is always 220 V in all tourist establishments