About Egypt

About Egypt

Egypt’s official name is the Arab Republic of Egypt. … The country is situated in the north-east part of Africa, although the Sinai Peninsula forms a land bridge with south-west Asia, and so Egypt is also called a Middle East country. Therefore it’s a transcontinental country, which helps it in being a major power in Africa, the Middle-East, the Mediterranean, and the Muslim world.

In Arabic, Egypt is called مصر, or Miṣr, and in ancient times the country was known as Kemet, or the black land, due to the alluvial soil deposited during the Nile’s annual flooding. This yearly event gave Egypt the fertile land that enabled it to expand along the length of the river, especially in the delta where many various crops were, and still are, harvested.

Egypt covers an area of approximately 1,001,450km2  (386,662 miles²) and is bordered by Israel and the Gaza Strip in the north-east; the Red Sea in the east; Sudan in the south; Libya in the west; and the Mediterranean Sea in the north. It is the 3rd most populous country in Africa and the most populous in the Middle-East with the majority of its estimated 98 million people living on, or near, the banks of the Nile. Only 5.5% of the total land area is actually used by the population, the area that borders the River Nile as well as a few cases, the other 94.5% being an uninhabitable desert.

Today, the Nile is considered as the longest river in the world, and it enters Egypt from Sudan and flows north for about 1,545km (960 miles) until it exits into the Mediterranean Sea. From the Sudanese border to Cairo, the Nile flows through a narrow cliff-lined valley, which, south of Edfu, is hardly more than 3km (2 miles) wide. From Edfu to Cairo, it is about 23km (14 miles) in width, with most of the arable land lying on the western side. Just north of Cairo, the valley merges with the Delta before the River Nile joins the Mediterranean Sea.

A predominantly Sunni Muslim country, Egypt’s state religion is Islam. A genuine estimate of the percentages of the various religions is a controversial topic in Egypt, and no two sets of figures appear to match, but it is generally accepted that 80-90% of the population is Muslim. Five times a day the “Azzan”, the Islamic call to prayer, can be heard being broadcast from the loudspeakers on Cairo’s many minarets. There are so many Mosques in the Egyptian capital that it was once dubbed “The City of 1,000 Minarets”.

Cairo also hosts a considerable number of church towers due to the Christian minority in Egypt, which makes up about 8-18% of the population. Of these, 90% belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria with the other 10% comprising of the Coptic Catholic Church; the Evangelical Church of Egypt; and various other Protestant denominations.

The remaining 2% of the population are Jews, with a number of synagogues being sited around Cairo. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are the only three religions that Egypt officially recognizes.

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Common Arabic Words and Expressions