Egypt

Why Egypt works

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, spans the northeast corner of Africa and, via the Sinai Peninsula, the southwest corner of Asia. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan and the Sahara to the south, and Libya to the west, with the Gulf of Aqaba separating it from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural centre, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and a hub of industry and tourism; with over 107 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the third-most populous in Africa.

Around 3150 BCE, King Menes unified Egypt, establishing a succession of dynasties that would rule for three millennia and a civilisation distinguished by its achievements in religion, art, and writing. The Old Kingdom, from roughly 2700 to 2200 BCE, saw the construction of the pyramids, including those at Giza, and was followed after a brief interregnum by the Middle Kingdom, a period of renewed stability under rulers such as Amenemhat III. Egypt was reunified by Ahmose I, founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, ushering in the New Kingdom of roughly 1550 to 1070 BCE, the era of Egypt's greatest regional power, when its influence extended into Nubia and the Levant and produced pharaohs still renowned today, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II.

Those millennia of dynastic rule left behind the monuments that draw visitors today, from the pyramids of Giza to the temple complexes and tomb sites built across the Nile Valley by New Kingdom pharaohs. The Ptolemaic Kingdom that followed the pharaohs, a Hellenistic state stretching from southern Syria to Cyrene and south to Nubia, made Alexandria its capital and a centre of Greek culture and trade; the Ptolemies adopted pharaonic traditions to legitimise their rule, appearing on monuments in Egyptian style, and built the Lighthouse of Alexandria around 280 BCE, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World before earthquakes later destroyed it. That dynasty ended when Cleopatra VII took her own life after Octavian captured Alexandria, opening the way to Roman annexation. Egypt is also a transcontinental nation, possessing a land bridge — the Isthmus of Suez — between Africa and Asia, traversed by the Suez Canal, the navigable waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean by way of the Red Sea.

Egypt lies primarily between latitudes 22° and 32°N and covers 1,001,450 square kilometres, making it the world's 29th-largest country by area, yet the extreme aridity of its climate concentrates population overwhelmingly along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta — about 99% of Egyptians live on roughly 5.5% of the country's total land area, and by another measure 98% live on just 3% of the territory. Apart from the Nile Valley, most of the landscape is desert dotted with scattered oases, and prevailing winds sculpt extensive sand dunes across it.

Egyptian cuisine draws on the agricultural traditions of the Nile Valley and Delta, built heavily around poultry, legumes, vegetables, and fruit. Staple dishes include mahshi, rice-stuffed vegetables and grape leaves, falafel — known locally as ta'ameya — shawarma, kabab, and kofta, alongside specialities such as ful medames, mashed fava beans; feteer, a flaky layered pie with various fillings; hawawshi, spiced minced meat baked inside bread; and molokhiya, a jute-leaf stew. Koshary, a mix of lentils, rice, and pasta, is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and many Egyptian dishes, including stews such as bamia, an okra stew, and qolqas, a taro root stew, are traditionally slow-cooked at home following culinary practices passed down through generations of rural kitchens.

• Egypt — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Text adapted from the linked articles under CC BY-SA 4.0; edited for length.

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