Egypt – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted By admin on May 12, 2015
This article is about the modern country. For the ancient realm, see Ancient Egypt. Arab Republic of Egypt Jumhriyyat Mir al-Arabiyyah (Arabic) Gomhoreyyet Mar el-Arabeyya (Egyptian Arabic) Anthem:Bilady, Bilady, Bilady My country, my country, my country Capital and largest city Cairo 302N 3113E / 30.033N 31.217E / 30.033; 31.217 Official languages Arabic[a] National language Egyptian Arabic Demonym Egyptian Government Unitary semi-presidential republic - President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi - Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab Legislature Legislation by presidential decree (Temporarily until the House of Representatives is elected) Establishment - Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt[1][2][c] c. 3150 BC - Muhammad Ali Dynasty inaugurated 9 July 1805[3] - Independence from the United Kingdom 28 February 1922 - Republic declared 18 June 1953 - Revolution Day 23 July 1952 - Current Constitution 18 January 2014 Area - Total 1,010,407.87 [4]km2 (30th) 387,048sqmi - Water(%) 0.632 Population - 2015estimate 88,500,000[5] (15th) - 2006census 72,798,000[6] - Density 84/km2 (126th) 218/sqmi GDP(PPP) 2015estimate - Total $989.886 billion[7] (24th) - Per capita $11,194[7] (100th) GDP(nominal) 2015estimate - Total $324.267 billion[8] (34th) - Per capita $3,724[8] (115th) Gini(2008) 30.8[9] medium HDI (2013) 0.682[10] medium 110th Currency Egyptian pound (EGP) Time zone EET (UTC+2) - Summer(DST) EEST(UTC+3[b]) Drives on the right Calling code +20 ISO 3166 code EG Internet TLD a. ^ Literary Arabic is the sole official language.[11] Egyptian Arabic is the national spoken language. Other dialects and minority languages are spoken regionally. b. ^ Summer time was reintroduced in 2014. c. "Among the peoples of the ancient Near East, only the Egyptians have stayed where they were and remained what they were, although they have changed their language once and their religion twice. In a sense, they constitute the world's oldest nation".[12][13] Arthur Goldschmidt Jr.
Egypt (i//; Arabic: Mir, Egyptian Arabic: Mar) is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is the world's only contiguous Eurafrasian nation and most of Egypt's territory of 1,010,408 square kilometres (390,000sqmi) lies within the Nile Valley. It is a Mediterranean country and is bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
With over 88 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab World, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres (15,000sqmi), where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, arising in the tenth millennium BCE as one of the world's first nation states.[14] Considered a cradle of civilization, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government in history. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest worldwide. Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, having endured and at times assimilated various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and European.
Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world.[15] Its economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and services at almost equal production levels. In 2011, longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid mass protests. Later elections saw the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted by the army a year later amid mass protests.
The English name Egypt is derived from the Ancient Greek Agyptos (), via Middle French Egypte and Latin Aegyptus. It is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigpti-, aigptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, and from there into Arabic as qub, back formed into qub, whence English Copt. The Greek forms were borrowed from Late Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hwt-ka-Ptah (wt-k-pt), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis.[16]Strabo attributed the word to a folk etymology in which Agyptos () evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptis (A ), meaning "below the Aegean".
Mir (IPA:[misr] or Egyptian Arabic pronunciation:[mes]; Arabic: ) is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while Mar (IPA:[ms]; Egyptian Arabic: ) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew (Mitzryim).[17] The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and means "country", or "frontier-land".
The ancient Egyptian name of the country was km.t, which means black ground or black soil, referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the deshret (dt), or "red land" of the desert.[18] This name is commonly vocalised as Kemet, but was probably pronounced [kumat] in ancient Egyptian.[19] The name is realised as kme and km in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as (Khma).[20] Another name was t-mry "land of the riverbank".[21] The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw (t-mw) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew (t mw) "northland", respectively.
There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society.[22]
By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.[23] During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.[24]
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Egypt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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