Modern Egypt

Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian and traveller, once descibed Egypt as `the gift of the Nile', and since long before the birth of Christ travellers have been drawn by images of pyramids, the Sphinx, ancient Luxor and the Nile river. The Pharaohs, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks and the British have all ruled Egypt, and modern Egypt is an amalgam of these legacies and the influences of Islam and the 20th century.

Mud-brick villages stand beside Pharaonic ruins surrounded by buildings of steel, stone and glass. Bedouins live in goatskin tents and farmers till the earth with the simple tools of their ancestors. Townsfolk dress in long flowing robes, others in Levis and Reeboks, and city traffic competes with donkey-drawn carts and wandering goats. Nowhere are these contrasts played out so colourfully as in Cairo, a massive city thronged with people and ringing to the sound of car horns, ghetto-blasters and muezzins summoning the faithful to prayer. Egypt isn't all chaos and clatter, however. It's also a diver's dream dip, a quiet camel caravan through the desert or a long lazy punt down the Nile.

Geography

Location:
Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip

Geographic coordinates:
27 00 N, 30 00 E

Area:
total: 1,001,450 sq km
land: 995,450 sq km
water: 6,000 sq km

Climate: desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters

Land use:
arable land: 2%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 98% (1993 est.)

Facts at a Glance

Full country name: Arab Republic of Egypt
Area: 1,001,449 sq km
Population: 68,359,979 (July 2000 est.)
Capital city: Cairo
People: Berbers, Bedouins and Nubians
Language: Arabic
Religion: 90% Islam, 7% Christian
Government: Democracy
President: Mohammed Hosni Mubarak

Environment

Hacking a whopping square chunk out of Africa's north-east corner, Egypt stretches over more than a million square km. More than 90% of the land area is barren desert though, which has induced 99% of the population to squish into just 3% of the total land area, the fertile Nile Valley and Delta. Egypt borders Libya in the west, Sudan in the south, the Mediterranean Sea in the north, and the Red Sea and Israel in the east. The eastern region, across the Suez Canal, is Sinai. This region slopes up to the high mountains of Mt Catherine (Gebel Katherina at 2642 metres is Egypt's highest point) and Mt Sinai. Along Egypt's Mediterranean coast there are countless white-sand beaches, some developed as tourist resorts but many still pristine and isolated. North of Cairo the Nile splits into a series of tributaries that flow into the Mediterranean.

Most of the animals worshipped by the ancient Egyptians are now extinct in the country. Gone are the leopards, cheetahs, oryx and hyenas, and only two of the three varieties of gazelle still survive. There are plenty of rodents and bats, but domesticated camels and donkeys are the most visible forms of Egyptian animal life. There are around 430 species of birds, some of which breed in Egypt, but most pass through on migration from Europe to southern Africa. Up to two million birds are thought to pass over Egypt on annual migrations. There are also 34 varieties of snakes, the most well known of which is the cobra. Scorpions are common throughout the country, but being nocturnal, they are rarely seen. The Red Sea supports sharks, stingrays, turtles, dolphins, colourful corals, sponges, starfish and various molluscs.

Egypt's climate is hot and dry most of the year. During the winter months - December, January and February - average daily temperatures stay up around 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) on the Mediterranean coast and a pleasant 26 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in Aswan. Maximum temperatures get to 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) and 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively. Winter nights only get down to 8 degrees Celsius, a very Egyptian version of chilly. Alexandria receives the most rain with 19 cm each year, while Aswan is almost bone-dry with just 2 mm annually. Between March and April the khamsin blows in from the Western Desert at up to 150 km per hour.

Culture

For most Egyptians life and lifestyle have changed little for hundreds of years. The 20th century has certainly made impressions in the form of Coca Cola, Levis and TV. However, for the majority fellahin (peasant farmers) population, things today are much the same as they have always been. There's a prevailing attitude amongst most Egyptians that whatever will be will be. An almost fatalistic outlook prevails, born out of thousands of years of plague, famine, invasion and flood. Life for most Egyptians is prescribed by the same circumstances that existed for the generations before them. Painting has been part of Egyptian life since the first daubs were applied to the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara in 24th century BC. But it was the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom who were especially keen on adorning the interiors of their tombs with vivid images of the afterworld and resurrection. Contemporary Egyptian painting was heavily influenced by western art and it wasn't until midway through this century that Egyptian painters began to break away from these influences. Some of the country's better known contemporary artists include Gazbia Serri, Inji Eflatoun, Abdel Wahab Morsi, Adel el-Siwi and Wahib Nasser.

Popular music in Egypt meant, until recently, the ubiquitous voice of Om Kolthum, the `mother of Egypt'. She died in 1975 but her music and her legend outlive her. Her songs, based on poetry and operettas, are the most well known Egyptian music to western ears. Other notables were Abdel Halim al-Hafez and Mohammed Abd el-Wahaab. Elements of western pop music are increasingly being integrated into contemporary Egyptian music, and exponents of newer styles include Iheb Tawfik, Mohammed Fouad and Hakim.

Although Egypt is famous for belly dancing, wiggling the body around is generally regarded as vulgar and a sign of promiscuity. Many of the dancers at belly-dancing shows at the resorts and tourist hotels are in fact European or American, because it's considered improper for Arab women to behave so provocatively. In fact, those dancers who are Egyptian, like Fifi Abdou, have body guards for protection against the excesses of Islamic zealotry. However, at large family gatherings - at wedding or private parties - dancing is sometimes part of the fun.

Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize in 1988 for literature for The Cairo Trilogy. Mahfouz has more than 40 novels and 30 screenplays to his name. His 1956 work Children of the Alley is still banned in Egypt, and many people regard it as blasphemous (in 1995 an attempt was made on the life of the 83-year-old author and it's thought that the book was the cause). Other notable authors include Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yahya Haqqi and Yusuf Idris. After Mahfouz, Nawal El-Saadawi is probably Egypt's best known author, although she's better regarded abroad than at home. Her most acclaimed works are Point Zero, The Fall of Iman (banned in Egypt) and Death of an ex-Minister