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The history of Egypt has been long and rich, due to the flow of the Nile river, with its fertile banks and delta. Its rich history also comes from its native inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's ancient history was a mystery until the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery and help of the Rosetta Stone. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the other Seven Wonders, is gone. The Library of Alexandria was the only one of its kind for centuries.

Human settlement in Egypt dates back to at least 40,000 BC with Aterian tool manufacturing. Ancient Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty, Narmer. Predominately native Egyptian rule lasted until the conquering of Egypt by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the 6th century BC.

In 332 BC, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered Egypt as he toppled the Achaemenids and established the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom, whose first ruler was one of Alexander's former generals, Ptolemy I Soter. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. The death of Cleopatra ended the nominal independence of Egypt resulting in Egypt becoming one of the provinces of the Roman Empire.

Roman rule in Egypt (including Byzantine) lasted from 30 BC to 641 AD, with a brief Sassanid Persian interlude between 619-629, known as Sasanian Egypt. After the Islamic conquest of Egypt, parts of Egypt became provinces of successive Caliphates and other Muslim dynasties: Rashidun Caliphate (632-661), Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), Abbasid Caliphate (750-909), Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171), Ayyubid Sultanate (1171–1260), and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250-1517). In 1517, Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo, absorbing Egypt into the Ottoman Empire.

Egypt remained entirely Ottoman until 1867, except during French occupation from 1798 to 1801. Starting in 1867, Egypt became a nominally autonomous tributary state called the Khedivate of Egypt. However, Khedivate Egypt fell under British control in 1882 following the Anglo-Egyptian War. After the end of World War I and following the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, the Kingdom of Egypt was established. While a de facto independent state, the United Kingdom retained control over foreign affairs, defense, and other matters. British occupation lasted until 1954, with the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954.

The modern Republic of Egypt was founded in 1953, and with the complete withdrawal of British forces from the Suez Canal in 1956, it marked the first time in 2,300 years that Egypt was both fully independent and ruled by native Egyptians. President Gamal Abdel Nasser (president from 1956 to 1970) introduced many reforms and created the short-lived United Arab Republic (with Syria). His terms also saw the Six Day War and the creation of the international Non-Aligned Movement. His successor, Anwar Sadat (president from 1970 to 1981) changed Egypt's trajectory, departing from many of the political, and economic tenets of Nasserism, re-instituting a multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy. He led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. This later led to the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty.

Recent Egyptian history has been dominated by events following nearly thirty years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak. In 2011, Egypt underwent a revolution that deposed Mubarak and resulted in the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history, Mohamed Morsi. Unrest after the 2011 revolution and related disputes led to the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.

Egypt Maps

Under the new regulations of the March 2011 referendum, the president is limited to two four-year terms, with the Judiciary supervising the elections. The president is required to appoint a deputy, and a commission will draft a new constitution following the parliamentary election. Candidates must provide 30,000 signatures from at least 15 provinces, or 30 members of a chamber of the legislature, or nomination by a party holding at least one seat in the legislature.

Following the convening of the newly elected People’s Assembly and Maglis al-Shura in March 2012, a committee was to draft a new constitution to replace the pre-revolutionary one, followed by presidential elections. However, the Egyptian presidential election, 2012 occurred without a new constitution. The military council, which took power in early 2011, promised a fair and civilian vote. The first round of the election took place on 23 May and 24 May 2012. It was followed by a run-off on 16 June and 17 June which Mohamed Morsi won. He assumed office 30 June 2012.

On 3 July 2013, the constitution of Egypt was suspended and Morsi was ousted from the presidency. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was elected in the 2014 presidential election.

Economy

The economy of Egypt was a highly centralized planned economy focused on import substitution under President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the 1990s, a series of International Monetary Fund arrangements, coupled with massive external debt relief resulting from Egypt's participation in the Gulf War coalition, helped Egypt improve its macroeconomic performance.

Religion

Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims accounting for 88% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians The vast majority of Muslims in Egypt are Sunni. A significant number of Sunni Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders. There are under fifty thousand Ahmadi Muslims. There is a minority of Mu'tazila, Shia Twelvers and Ismailism numbering a few thousands.

According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic law. Article 45 of the Constitution extends freedom of religion to the three Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), but only those three.

The remainder of Egyptians, numbering between 10% and 20% of the population, mostly belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Christian Church. The total number of Christians in Egypt is between 15% and 20% of a total population of 80 million Egyptians. While some government sources have claimed a percentage of around 6 to 10%, a number of published sources such as the Washington Institute, in addition to some of the Coptic sources, uphold that Christians represent more than 10% of the total population and claim that they actually still compose up to 15 or even 20% of the Egyptian population.

Language & Vocabulary

Egyptian is the oldest known language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known, along with Sumerian.

Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic. The national language of modern-day Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic as the language of daily life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt.

Coptic is still used as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. It has several hundred fluent speakers today.

Climate

Egypt generally has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh). The climate is generally dry in most of the country except on the northern Mediterranean coast which receives more rainfall in winter. In addition to rarity of rain, extreme heat during summer months is also a general climate feature of Egypt although daytime temperatures are more moderated along the [northern coast of Egypt/northern coast].

The prevailing winds from the Mediterranean Sea continuously blow over the northern coast without the interposition of an eventual mountain range and thus, greatly moderate temperatures throughout the year. Because of this effect, average low temperatures vary from 9.5 °C (49.1 °F) during wintertime to 23 °C (73.4 °F) to summertime and average high temperatures vary from 17 °C (62.6 °F) during wintertime to 32 °C (89.6 °F) in summertime. Though temperatures are moderated along the coasts, the situation changes in the interior of the country which are away from the moderating northerly winds. Thus, in the central and the southern parts, daytime temperatures are hotter, especially in summers where average high temperatures can exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in cities and places such as Aswan, Luxor, Asyut or Sohag which are located in the deserts of Egypt. Some mountainous locations in Sinai, such as Saint Catherine, have cooler night temperatures, due to their high elevations. It is very easy to stay cool at night

Every year, sometime from March to May, an extremely hot, dry and dusty wind blows from the south or the southwest. This wind is called khamasīn. When the flow of dry air continuously blows over vast desert regions, it picks up fine sand and dust particles and finally results in a dusty wind which is generally felt in the periphery of the desert. When this wind blows over Egypt, it causes high temperatures to soar temporarily at dangerous levels, usually over 45 °C (113 °F), the relative humidity levels to drop under 5%. The khamasīn causes sudden, early heat waves and the absolute highest temperature records in Egypt.

Egypt receives between 20 mm (0.79 in) and 200 mm (7.87 in) of annual average precipitation along the narrow Mediterranean coast, but south to Cairo, the average drops to nearly 0 mm (0.00 in) in the central and the southern part of the country. The cloudiest, rainiest places are in and around Alexandria and Rafah. The sunshine duration is high all over Egypt, ranging from a low of 3,300 hours along the northernmost part in places such as Alexandria to reach a high of over 4,000 hours farther in the interior, in most of the country.

It usually snows on the Sinai mountains, but it never ever snows in the cities called: Giza, Cairo, and Alexandria.