Egypt

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This article is about the country of Egypt. For other uses, see Egypt (disambiguation).

جمهورية مصر العربية Gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah Arab Republic of Egypt
Anthem: Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
Capital (and largest city)		Cairo 30°2′N, 31°13′E
Official languages		Arabic1
Demonym		Egyptian
Government		Semi-presidential republic
-	President	Hosni Mubarak
-	Prime Minister	Ahmed Nazif
Establishment
-	First Dynasty	c.3150 BCE
-	Independence from United Kingdom	February 28 1922
-	Republic declared	June 18 1953
Area
-	Total	980,869 km² (30th) 378,715 sq mi 386,660 Including Hala\'ib Triangle sq mi
-	Water (%)	0.632
Population
-	2007 estimate	80,335,036 (est.)"Egypt" in the CIA World Factbook, 2007.
-	1996 census	59,312,914
-	Density	74/km² (120th) 192/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2006 estimate
-	Total	$329.791 billion (29th)
-	Per capita	$4,836 (110th)
Gini (1999–00)		34.5 (medium)
HDI (2007)		▲ 0.708 (medium) (112nd)
Currency		Egyptian pound (EGP)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Internet TLD		.eg
Calling code		+20
1	Spoken language is Egyptian Arabic.

Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Kīmi; Arabic: مصر ‎ Miṣr ; Egyptian Arabic: Máṣr), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi), Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 80 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt\'s residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world\'s most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artefacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Identity 4 Politics 4.1 National 4.2 Human rights 4.3 Foreign relations 5 Governorates 6 Economy 7 Demographics 8 Religion 9 Culture 9.1 Renaissance 9.2 Art and architecture 9.3 Literature 9.4 Music 9.5 Festivals 9.6 Sports 9.6.1 Best results 10 Military 11 Geography 11.1 Climate 12 See also 12.1 Lists 13 Notes and references 14 External links

Etymology

km.t (Egypt) in hieroglyphs

km-m-t:niwt

One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet (kṃt), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" (dšṛt), of the desert. The name is realized as kīmi and kīmə in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Χημία (Khēmía). Another name was t3-mry "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme\'aw (t3-šmˁw) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew (t3 mḥw) "northland", respectively.

Miṣr, the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt).Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land".

The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word Aígyptos (Αίγυπτος). The adjective aigýpti, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into qubṭ, whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah (ḥwt-k3-ptḥ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which Aígyptos (Αίγυπτος ) had evolved as a compound from Aegaeon uptiōs (Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως), meaning "below the Aegean".

History

Main articles: History of Egypt, Ancient Egypt, and Egyptians

The Nile River in Egypt

Evidence of human habitation in the Nile Valley since the Paleolithic era appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/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 centralized society.Midant-Reynes, Béatrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture had appeared in the Nile Valley. 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 Egyptian civilization. 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 somewhat culturally separate, 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.Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69.

tAwy (\'Two Lands\') in hieroglyphs

N16:N16

A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kīmi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt\'s thriving tourism industry.

The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes.

The New Kingdom (c.1550−1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country.

First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo\'s most famous Coptic church.

The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule.

Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian\'s reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39

The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day.El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517.

Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel.

The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance.Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma\'il Pasha.

In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Members of the Assembly were elected from across Egypt and came to have an important influence on governmental decisions.Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Khedive Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. However, the country fell heavily into debt to European powers. As a result, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt\'s government in 1882 to protect its financial interests, especially those in the Suez Canal.

Shortly after its political intervention, Britain sent troops into Alexandria and the Canal Zone, taking advantage of Egypt\'s weak military. With the defeat of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, British troops reached Cairo, eliminated the nationalist government and disbanded the Egyptian military. Technically, Egypt remained an Ottoman province until 1914, when Britain formally declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed Egypt\'s last khedive, Abbas II. His uncle, Husayn Kamil, was appointed as Sultan in his place.Jankowski, op cit., p. 111

Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.

Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence, spurred by British actions, was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt\'s independence on February 22, 1922.Jankowski, op cit., p. 112

The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d\'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad.

On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis.

View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital.

Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt\'s Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike.

In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the sinai in return with peace with Israel.

Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat\'s initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt\'s expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians.Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kefaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties.

Identity

Mahmoud Mokhtar\'s Egypt\'s Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University.

The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country\'s cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary.

Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms:

“

What is most significant [about Egypt in this period] is the absence of an Arab component in early Egyptian nationalism. The thrust of Egyptian political, economic, and cultural development throughout the nineteenth century worked against, rather than for, an "Arab" orientation... This situation—that of divergent political trajectories for Egyptians and Arabs—if anything increased after 1900.Jankowski, James. "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism" in Rashid Khalidi, ed. The Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, pp. 244-45

”

In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati\' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation."qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals.Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing:

“

The Egyptians are not Arabs, and both they and the Arabs are aware of this fact. They are Arabic-speaking, and they are Muslim —indeed religion plays a greater part in their lives than it does in those either of the Syrians or the Iraqi. But the Egyptian, during the first thirty years of the [twentieth] century, was not aware of any particular bond with the Arab East... Egypt sees in the Arab cause a worthy object of real and active sympathy and, at the same time, a great and proper opportunity for the exercise of leadership, as well as for the enjoyment of its fruits. But she is still Egyptian first and Arab only in consequence, and her main interests are still domestic.Deighton, H. S. "The Arab Middle East and the Modern World", International Affairs, vol. xxii, no. 4 (October 1946), p. 519.

”

It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt\'s position in the Middle East and the world,"Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-à-vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state.

For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt\'s attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics.Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser\'s successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent.Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains:

“

...the impact of the October 1973 War (also known as the Ramadan or Yom Kippur War) found Egyptians reverting to an earlier sense of national identity, that of Egyptianism. Egypt became their foremost consideration and top priority in contrast to the earlier one, preferred by the Nasser régime, of Egypt\'s role and primacy in the Arab world. This kind of national \'restoration\' was led by the Old Man of Egyptian Nationalism, Tawfiq el-Hakim, who in the 1920s and 1930s was associated with the Pharaonist movement.Vatikiotis, p. 499

”

Egyptian flag 1922-1958.

The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... \'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,\' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006.

In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-\'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat\'s death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier."Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of \'Arab Nationalism\': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians.

Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass.In an audio interview on Egypt\'s links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn\'t mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs.", popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie GreissAn Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007., in addition to different local groups and intellectuals.Kimit Sagi (Arabic)We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003.Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. (Arabic) Said Habeeb\'s Masreyat. (Arabic)Egyptian national group (Arabic) This understanding is also expressed in other contexts,Egyptian people section from Arab.NetPrinceton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa\'s novel Joseph\'s Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be."Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005.

Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt\'s culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo:

“

Historically, Egyptians have considered themselves as distinct from \'Arabs\' and even at present rarely do they make that identification in casual contexts; il-\'arab [the Arabs] as used by Egyptians refers mainly to the inhabitants of the Gulf states... Egypt has been both a leader of pan-Arabism and a site of intense resentment towards that ideology. Egyptians had to be made, often forcefully, into "Arabs" [during the Nasser era] because they did not historically identify themselves as such. Egypt was self-consciously a nation not only before pan-Arabism but also before becoming a colony of the British Empire. Its territorial continuity since ancient times, its unique history as exemplified in its pharaonic past and later on its Coptic language and culture, had already made Egypt into a nation for centuries. Egyptians saw themselves, their history, culture and language as specifically Egyptian and not "Arab."Haeri, Niloofar. Sacred language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003, pp. 47, 136.

”

Politics

Main article: Politics of Egypt

National

Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office.

Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005.

In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country\'s presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy."Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory.Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt\'s problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators.Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the “conviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt\'s 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt\'s commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.”United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt\'s Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005

As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country\'s 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections.Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak\'s pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office.Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006.

Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum would be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curb the activity of certain opposition elements, particularly Islamists.

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Egypt

Members of the Kefaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.

Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt\'s human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations, according to HRW\'s 2006 report on Egypt, are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts.Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005

Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Coptic Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major construction still requires governmental approval, while sporadic attacks on Christians and churches continue.Church Building Regulations Eased Intolerance of Bahá\'ís and unorthodox Muslim sects, such as Sufis and Shi\'a, also remains a problem. The Egyptian legal system only recognizes three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. When the government moved to computerize identification cards, members of religious minorities, such as Bahá\'ís, could not obtain identification documents.U.S. Department of State (2004-09-15). Egypt: International Religious Freedom Report. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Retrieved on 2008-01-30. An Egyptian court ruled in early 2008 that members of other faiths can obtain identity cards without listing their faiths, and without becoming officially recognized.Johnston, Cynthia. "Egypt Baha\'is win court fight over identity papers", Reuters, 2008-01-29. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.  (For more on the status of religious minorities, see the Religion section.)

In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free."Freedom in the World 2006 (PDF). Freedom House (2005-12-16). Retrieved on 2006-07-27.
See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country\'s political future in 2005."Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006

In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt.Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt\'s foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government.Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13.

Consensual homosexual conduct between adults is criminalized under Egyptian law as a "practice of debauchery".HRW. HIV-Motivated Arrests and Convictions Threaten Justice and Public Health. February 5, 2008. Since 2001, Egyptian authorities have made hundreds of arbitrary arrests of young gay men, many of whom have been tried and convicted for acts of "debauchery", while hundreds of others have been harassed and tortured, according to HRW.HRW. In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice In Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct. 2004 In February 2008, a new round of arrests and torture of HIV-positive citizens followed a man\'s admission to the police that he was HIV-positive, sparking international outcry that the Egyptian government was treating the AIDS disease as a homosexual "crime" instead of providing care, prevention and education.AFP. Egypt chaining HIV men to hospital beds: rights group. February, 2008.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt.Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president.Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violationsEgyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law.Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt had announced in 2006 that it was in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law,Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. but in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul.Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007.

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Egypt

Egypt\'s foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region\'s social and cultural development.

The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.

Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt\'s indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries.

Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

Governorates

Main articles: Governorates of Egypt and Markazes of Egypt

Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, plus the self-governing city of Luxor (numbers label 5 capitals).

Egypt is divided into 26 governorates (in Arabic, called muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes).

Each governorate has a capital, often having the same name as the governorate (see map, showing names of the 26 capitals).

The tables (below) list the governorates in alphabetical order.

Governorate Capital Location Alexandria Alexandria Northern Aswan Aswan Upper Asyut Asyut Upper Beheira Damanhur Lower Beni Suef Beni Suef Upper Cairo Cairo Middle Dakahlia Mansura Lower Damietta Damietta Lower Faiyum Faiyum Upper Gharbia Tanta Lower Giza Giza Upper Ismailia Ismailia Canal Kafr el-Sheikh Kafr el-Sheikh Lower

Governorate Capital Location Matruh Mersa Matruh Western Minya Minya Upper Monufia Shibin el-Kom Lower New Valley Kharga Western North Sinai Arish Sinai Port Said Port Said Canal Qalyubia Banha Lower Qena Qena Upper Red Sea Hurghada Eastern Sharqia Zagazig Lower Sohag Sohag Upper South Sinai el-Tor Sinai Suez Suez Canal

Economy

Main article: Economy of Egypt

The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationers

Egypt\'s economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy.

The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal.

Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about 600,000 tonnes (590,000 LT/660,000 ST) per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over 1,100,000 cubic meters (39,000,000 cu ft) in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries.

Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006.

Tourists ride in traditional Nile boats.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007.

Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country\'s infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country\'s railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives.

The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME\'s. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country\'s huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Egypt and Egyptians

Egyptian farm

Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination.Egyptian people section from the World Factbook. World Fact Book. Retrieved on 2007-01-29. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity,BBC NEWS | The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution.Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases.

Egypt also hosts an unkno