Africa

Egypt

Egypt lies in the north-east corner of Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the east. The Sinai Peninsula, across the Suez Canal, is part of Asia, so Egypt is a transcontinental country. With more than 100 million people, it is the most populous country in the Arab world. The capital, Cairo, is one of the largest cities in Africa.

Egypt has one of the oldest civilisations in the world. Around 3100 BC Upper and Lower Egypt were united under the first pharaohs, and for nearly three thousand years Egyptian rulers built temples, tombs and pyramids along the Nile. Egypt was later ruled by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans and the British. It became formally independent in 1922 and a republic in 1953. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and is one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

The flag of Egypt

The flag has three horizontal stripes of red, white and black, with a golden eagle in the centre of the white stripe.

The colours are linked to the revolution of 1952. Red is said to stand for the period before the revolution and the struggle against colonial rule, white for the peaceful nature of the revolution, and black for the end of oppression. The same red, white and black appear on the flags of several other Arab countries. The golden bird is the Eagle of Saladin, the sultan who ruled Egypt in the 1100s, and the current version of the flag has been used since 1984.

Landscape and geography

Almost all of Egypt is desert. The Western Desert is part of the Sahara, and the Eastern Desert rises into rugged hills along the Red Sea. The Nile, flowing north from Sudan, creates a narrow green valley through the desert before spreading out into a wide delta north of Cairo. Around nine in ten Egyptians live in this valley and delta, on a small fraction of the country’s land.

In the south, the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, holds back Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. The mountains of southern Sinai include Mount Catherine, the highest point in Egypt, and Mount Sinai.

Did you know?

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still stands.
For more than 3,800 years the Great Pyramid was the tallest structure built by humans.
The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs because it carries the same text in three scripts.
Much of Egypt receives almost no rain, and some desert areas can go years without any.

Key facts

Capital: Cairo
Continent: Africa
Population: About 113 million
Land neighbours: 4
Coast: Has a coastline
European Union: Not a member
NATO: Not a member

Land neighbours

Israel
Libya
Palestine
Sudan

Egypt in numbers

Population	112,716,598 people
Land area	995,450 km²
Population density	113 people/km²
Total GDP	$395,000,000,000
GDP per capita	$3,500
Life expectancy	70.2 years
Unemployment rate	7%
Coastline	2,450 km
Forest coverage	0.1%
Human Development Index	0.731
UNESCO World Heritage sites	7 sites
Airports	83 airports

These are the figures used in GeoDecide. They are rounded and can lag behind the latest official statistics.

World rankings

Geo Sort asks you to place countries by rank. A lower number means a higher place in that category.

Land Area	#30
Coastline	#33
FIFA Ranking (M)	#36
Military Strength	#15
Avg Annual Temperature	#48
UNESCO Sites	#31
Population Density	#90
Highest Point	#91

Practise Egypt on Geodly

Flag Drawing: The flag of Egypt is in the Easy set. Draw it from memory and compare your drawing with the real design.
Geo Click: Find Egypt on the map, or locate its capital, Cairo, in the capital modes.
Geo Chain: Link countries through shared land borders. Knowing the 4 neighbours of Egypt gives you more routes.
GeoDecide: Compare Egypt with other countries on the statistics listed above.
Geo Sort: Place Egypt in the category where its world rank is strongest.
Terra Tac Toe: Use Egypt as an answer when its facts fit both the row and the column of a square.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Egypt · CIA World Factbook: Egypt