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Map of Egypt and Facts
Map of Egypt and facts
Official name: Jumhuriyah Misr al-'Arabiyah (Arab Republic of Egypt. Form of government: republic with one legislative house (People's Assembly [454]). Chief of state: President. Head of government: Prime Minister. Population: 78,887,007 Capital City: Cairo (8.7 million) Largest Cities: Cairo, Alexandria
Currency: Egyptian Pound Currency Converter: Appx £1 sterling = E11 (eleven Egyptian pounds) Latitude/Longitude 30º06 N, 31º25 E Languages: Arabic (official), English, French National Day: 23 July; Revolution Day Natural increase rate per 1,000 population (1997): 19.0 (world avg. 15.7). Gross national product (1996: U.S.$64,275,000,000 (U.S.$1,080 per capita). Land Area 995,450 sq km (384,343 sq miles) Egypt's land frontiers border Libya to the west, The Sudan to the south, and Israel to the northeast. In the north its Mediterranean coastline is about 620 miles (1,000 km), and in the east its coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba is about 1,200 miles (1,900 km).
The country is dissected by the amazing Nile River, as it flows north to the Mediterranean Sea from it source in central Africa. The surrounding Nile Valley, 5-10 miles wide, is the country's only fertile land. and home to 98% of the population. The Red Sea is extended into the Mediterranean by the man-made Suez Canal.
The Sinai Peninsula lies east of the canal, and this limestone plateau rises to Mt Catherine in the south. Lake Nassar, the largest lake, is man-made, and created when the Aswan dam was constructed, then finished in 1970. Highest Point Mt. Catherine (2,637 m) (8,652 ft) Lowest Point Qattara Depression (-133 m) Land Divisions 26 governorates; Including Ad Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah, Al Iskandariyah, Al Isma'iliyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya, Al Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, Ash Sharqiyah, As Suways, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Sa'id, Dumyat, Janub Sina', Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina' and Suhaj
The Sinai Peninsula lies east of the canal, and this limestone plateau rises to Mt Catherine in the south. Lake Nassar, the largest lake, is man-made, and created when the Aswan dam was constructed, then finished in 1970. Highest Point Mt. Catherine (2,637 m) (8,652 ft) Lowest Point Qattara Depression (-133 m) Land Divisions 26 governorates; Including Ad Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah, Al Iskandariyah, Al Isma'iliyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya, Al Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, Ash Sharqiyah, As Suways, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Sa'id, Dumyat, Janub Sina', Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina' and Suhaj
In brief... Map of Egypt and Location Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa. Egypt's heartland, the Nile River valley and delta, was the home of one of the principal civilizations of the ancient Middle East and, like Mesopotamia farther east, was the site of one of the world's earliest urban and literate societies. Pharaonic Egypt thrived for some 3,000 years through a series of native dynasties that were interspersed with brief periods of foreign rule. After Alexander the Great conquered the region in 323 BC, urban Egypt became an integral part of the Hellenistic world. Under the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, an advanced literate society thrived in the city of Alexandria, but what is now Egypt was conquered by the Romans in 30 BC. It remained part of the Roman Republic and Empire and then part of Rome's successor state, the Byzantine Empire, until its conquest by Arab Muslim armies in AD 639–642. Until the Muslim conquest, great continuity had typified Egyptian rural life. Despite the incongruent ethnicity of successive ruling groups and the cosmopolitan nature of Egypt's larger urban centres, the language and culture of the rural, agrarian masses—whose lives were largely measured by the annual rise and fall of the Nile River, with its annual inundation—had changed only marginally throughout the centuries. Following the conquests, both urban and rural culture began to adopt elements of Arab culture, and an Arabic vernacular eventually replaced the Egyptian language as the common means of spoken discourse. Moreover, since that time, Egypt's history has been part of the broader Islamic world, and though Egyptians continued to be ruled by foreign elite whether Arab, Kurdish, Circassian, or Turkish, the country's cultural milieu remained predominantly Arab. Egypt eventually became one of the intellectual and cultural centres of the Arab and Islamic world, a status that was fortified in the mid-13th century when Mongol armies sacked Baghdad and ended the 'Abbasid caliphate. The Mamluk sultans of Egypt, under whom the country thrived for several centuries, established a pseudo-caliphate of dubious legitimacy. But in 1517 the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluks and established control over Egypt that lasted until 1798, when Napoleon I led a French army in a short occupation of the country. The French occupation, which ended in 1801, marked the first time a European power had conquered and occupied Egypt, and it set the stage for further European involvement. Egypt's strategic location has always made it a hub for trade routes between Africa, Europe, and Asia, but this natural advantage was enhanced in 1869 by the opening of the Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. The concern of the European powers (namely France and the United Kingdom, which were major shareholders in the canal) to safeguard the canal for strategic and commercial reasons became one of the most important factors influencing the subsequent history of Egypt. The United Kingdom occupied Egypt in 1882 and continued to exert a strong influence on the country until after World War II (1939–45). In 1952 a military coup installed a revolutionary regime that promoted a combination of socialism and Pan-Arab nationalism. The new regime's extreme political rhetoric and its nationalization of the Suez Canal Company prompted the Suez Crisis of 1956, which was only resolved by the intervention of the United States and the Soviet Union, whose presence in the Mediterranean region thereafter kept Egypt in the international spotlight. During the Cold War, Egypt's central role in the Arabic-speaking world increased its geopolitical importance as Arab nationalism and inter-Arab relations became powerful and emotional political forces in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt led the Arab states in a series of wars against Israel but was the first of those states to make peace with the Jewish state, which it did in 1979.
Ancient Egypt Map
The Gift of the Nile...
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.” Indeed, the country's rich agricultural productivity is one of the region's major food producers, has long supported a large rural population devoted to working the land. Present-day Egypt, however, is largely urban. The capital city, Cairo, is one of the world's largest urban agglomerations, and manufacturing and trade have increasingly outstripped agriculture as the largest sectors of the national economy. Tourism has traditionally provided an enormous portion of foreign exchange, but that industry has been subject to fluctuations during times of political and civil unrest in the region. Egypt itself, however, has experienced a high level of political stability despite ongoing tension with Islamic militant groups that have engaged in sporadic political violence since the 1980s.
Napoleonic Map of Egypt
Source: National Gallery of Art Website
