Egypt Overview

Occupying a focal geographic bridge linking Africa and Asia, contemporary Egypt is the inheritor of a civilization dating back more than 6,000 years. While best known for its Pyramids and Ancient Civilisations, Egypt has played a central role in Middle East politics in modern times.

Establishment:

• First Dynasty c.3150 BCE
• Independence from United Kingdom February 28, 1922
• Republic declared June 18, 1953

Capital: Cairo

Area: Total 980,869 square km

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers where the only arable agricultural land is found.

Recent Egyptian history originates with the revolution of 1952 by the Society of Free Officers. Following the revolution Egypt declared itself a Republic in 1953. In 1952 revolution in which, the Egyptian king, Farouk, was overthrown and a republic declared. Gamal Abdul Nasser took over as premier in 1954 and then voted president in 1956.

The name Egypt is derived from Greek word Acgyptus, which was taken from the ancient Egyptian term Hik up tuh (House of Spirit).

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.

The modern Egyptian state is the product of a historically rooted political culture and of the state-building efforts of its founding leaders, Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar as Sadat. Egypt has been governed by powerful centralized rule since ancient times, when the management of irrigated agriculture gave rise to the pharaohs, absolute god-kings.

Major political parties:

National Democratic Party (ruling party), Wafd Party, Tagammu and Party.

The NDP was originally established by Sadat, and it has remained in power since 1978.

The largest legal opposition party, though not very powerful, is the revived Wafd Party. The Wafd arose in 1978, after the original Wafd Party was outlawed in 1952.

Egypt's all crowded and big cities are concentrated along the banks of the Nile, and on the river's delta. Apart from these Deserts occupy most of the country.

Alexandria is the one of the greatest ancient cities and the modern Egyptian capital Cairo is the Africa's largest city for its age old culture and commerce.

The other cities are -

Egypt remains an important regional interlocutor, and plays an active role in the Arab League. The EU-Egypt Association Agreement came into force on June 2004. It includes provisions for initiating free trade between the EU and Egypt.

Egypt is a major regional media player. Its press is one of the most influential and widely-read in the region, and its TV and film industry supplies much of the Arab-speaking world with shows from its Media Production City, an enterprise which was set up to create the "Hollywood of the East".