Egypt

The River Nile has fed waterways to maintain life in Egypt since the earliest times. The world’s first canal was built in Egypt in around 4000BC.

Ancient Egypt produced one of history's earliest peace treaties, the Kadesh Peace Treaty, negotiated in 1259 B.C. with the Hittite Empire.

In 1168AD, Fustat, the then-capital of Egypt was ordered to be burnt to the ground by its own vizier to stop it falling into the hands of the crusaders.

Saif ad-Din Qutuz was born a a baby prince in Khawarizam (Persia). He was sold as a slave after the Mongols invaded their land and killed his family. Qutuz arrived in Egypt and rose among the ranks until he became vice-Sultan.  When Egypt was threatened by the Mongols in 1259 he took the lead militarily and then deposed the reigning Sultan, 15-year-old Sultan Al-Mansur Ali. Qutuz led an Egyptian Mamluk army north to confront the Mongols.

The battle of Ain Jalut was fought on September 3, 1260 in southeastern Galilee, between the Egyptian Mamluk army and the Mongols. The Mongols were crushingly defeated by Qutuz's forces, in what has been considered a historical turning point.

A railway line built between Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile was opened in 1854. It was the first railway in the Ottoman Empire as well as Africa and the Middle East.

In 1875 an Egyptian financial crisis enabled Benjamin Disraeli to buy 44% holding in Suez Canal Company for Britain and thus secured the country great influence in the running of Egypt.

Egypt has been an independent country since 1922.

Gamal Abdel Nasser became President of Egypt on June 23, 1956, after winning a referendum with 99.9% of the vote. He was a charismatic and popular leader who played a key role in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which overthrew the monarchy. 

Nasser was a strong nationalist who sought to modernize Egypt and to assert its independence from Western powers. He was also a pan-Arabist who envisioned a united Arab world. 

Nasser's presidency was marked by both successes and failures. He nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, which led to a war with Israel and Britain. He also played a key role in the formation of the United Arab Republic, a union between Egypt and Syria. However, Nasser's economic policies were often unsuccessful, and he became increasingly authoritarian in his later years. 

Nasser died in 1970, and he is still considered to be one of the most important figures in modern Egyptian history.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

The Egyptian presidential election that was held on September 7, 2005, was the first allegedly contested presidential election in Egypt's history. Hosni Mubarak, the former President of Egypt, won a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote.

Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East, and the third most populous on the African continent, with about 84 million inhabitants as of 2013.

The country is ethnically homogeneous, with Egyptians comprising more than 99% of the population.

Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in Africa with a metropolitan population of over 19 million.

About 95 percent of Egypt’s population lives on about four percent of the land, a green belt roughly half the size of Ireland that follows the Nile as it snakes through the desert, then fans out into the Nile Delta.

Unhappiness among many Egyptians with the autocratic rule of 30-year President Hosni Mubarak boiled over on January 25 2011 when over 20,000 protesters entered the streets of Cairo protesting over Egypt's government. The protests continued for several weeks and hundreds were killed and/or wounded as both anti and pro-government demonstrators clashed. The diverse mass protest movement ultimately forced longtime president Hosni Mubarak from office.

Tahrir Square protestsers on February 9. By Jonathan Rashad - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, $3

The spoken languages are: Egyptian Arabic (68%), Sa'idi Arabic (29%).

An estimated 90% of the population are identified as Muslim, 9% as Coptic Christians and 1% as other Christian denominations.

The Giza Necropolis is Egypt's most popular tourist destination since antiquity, and was popularised in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today it is the only one of those wonders still in existence.

Egypt has compulsory military service for males, but only if they have a brother. If they have no siblings or only a sister, they are exempt.

Fesikh is a national Egyptian fish dish, usually made of fermented and salt-dried gray mullet fish. Fesikh is usually eaten in Sham Ennessim, a spring festival that dates back to ancient times in Egypt, where Fesikh was first made.

Under Egyptian law, belly-dancers must have their navel covered when they perform.

Sources The New York Times, Wikipedia