Egypt

For other uses, see Egypt (disambiguation).

Arab Republic of Egypt
جمهورية مصر العربية (Arabic)
Jumhūrīyat Miṣr al-ʻArabīyah
Anthem: 
Capital
and largest city
Cairo
30°2′N 31°13′E / 30.033°N 31.217°E / 30.033; 31.217
Official languagesArabic[1]
National languageEgyptian Arabic[a]
Religion
See Religion in Egypt[b]
Demonym(s)Egyptian
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic under an authoritarian regime[6][7][8][9][10]
• President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Mostafa Madbouly
LegislatureParliament
• Upper house
Senate
• Lower house
House of Representatives
Establishment
• Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt[11][12]
c. 3150 BC
• Fall of Memphis
343 BC
639–642
1171/4–1517
• Muhammad Ali dynasty inaugurated
9 July 1805[13]
28 February 1922
23 July 1952
• Republic declared
18 June 1953
18 January 2014
Area
• Total
1,010,408[14][15] km2 (390,121 sq mi) (30th)
• Water (%)
0.632
Population
• 2024[16] estimate
Neutral increase 107,304,000 (14th)
• 2017[17] census
Neutral increase 94,798,827
• Density
106.20/km2 (275.1/sq mi) (106th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $2.232 trillion[16] (18th)
• Per capita
Increase $20,799[16] (87th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Decrease $380.044 billion[16] (42nd)
• Per capita
Decrease $3,542[16] (132nd)
Gini (2019)Negative increase 31.9[18]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Decrease 0.728[19]
high (105th)
CurrencyEgyptian pound (LE/E£/£E) (EGP)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EGY)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (EEST[c])
Drives onright
Calling code+20
ISO 3166 codeEG
Internet TLD

Egypt (Arabic: مصر Miṣr [mesˁr], Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mɑsˤr]), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in the southwest corner of Asia. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast.[20] At approximately 110 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world, and the third-most populated in Africa.

Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government.[21] Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, later adopting Islam from the seventh century onwards. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in the tenth century, and of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century. Egypt then became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, before its local ruler Muhammad Ali established modern Egypt as an autonomous Khedivate in 1867.

The country was then occupied by the British Empire and gained independence in 1922 as a monarchy. Following the 1952 revolution, Egypt declared itself a republic. For a brief period between 1958 and 1961 Egypt merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic. Egypt fought several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and occupied the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967. In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords, which recognised Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from the occupied Sinai. After the Arab Spring, which led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the country faced a protracted period of political unrest; this included the election in 2012 of a brief, short-lived Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islamist government spearheaded by Mohamed Morsi, and its subsequent overthrow after mass protests in 2013.

Egypt's current government, a semi-presidential republic led by president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he was elected in 2014, has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian and responsible for perpetuating the country's poor human rights record. Islam is the official religion of Egypt, and Arabic is its official language.[1] The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi), 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 43% of Egypt's residents live across the country's urban areas,[22] with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is considered to be a regional power in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world, and a middle power worldwide.[23] It is a developing country having a diversified economy, which is the second largest in Africa, the 42nd-largest economy by nominal GDP and 132nd by nominal GDP per capita.[16] Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, World Youth Forum, and a member of BRICS.

  1. ^ a b "Constitution of The Arab Republic of Egypt 2014" (PDF). sis.gov.eg. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 July 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  2. ^ "Constitutional Declaration: A New Stage in the History of the Great Egyptian People". Egypt State Information Service. 30 March 2011. Archived from the original on 27 April 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  3. ^ "How many Christians are there in Egypt?". Pew Research Center. 16 February 2011. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference churches-deleg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Egyptian Copts reject population estimate – Politics". english.ahram.org.eg. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  6. ^ Truex, Rory; Tavana, Daniel L. (July 2019). "Implicit Attitudes toward an Authoritarian Regime". The Journal of Politics. 81 (3): 1014–1027. doi:10.1086/703209. ISSN 0022-3816. S2CID 203513334.
  7. ^ Cambanis, Thanassis (22 May 2015). "Egypt's Sisi Is Getting Pretty Good … at Being a Dictator". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Egypt: A Move to Enhance Authoritarian Rule". Human Rights Watch. 2019. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  9. ^ Raghavan, Sudarsan (9 July 2020). "Egypt tries to silence its critics in the United States by jailing their relatives". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  10. ^ Al-Arian, Abdullah (27 February 2020). "Hosni Mubarak's legacy is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  11. ^ Goldschmidt, Arthur (1988). Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-86531-182-4. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2015. 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. For most of their history, Egypt has been a state, but only in recent years has it been truly a nation-state, with a government claiming the allegiance of its subjects on the basis of a common identity.
  12. ^ "Background Note: Egypt". United States Department of State Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  13. ^ Pierre Crabitès (1935). Ibrahim of Egypt. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-81121-7. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2013. ... on July 9, 1805, Constantinople conferred upon Muhammad Ali the pashalik of Cairo ...
  14. ^ "Density By Governorate 1/7/2020 – Area km2 (Theme: Population – pg.14)". Capmas.gov.eg. Archived from the original on 2 November 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  15. ^ "Total area km2, pg.15" (PDF). Capmas.Gov – Arab Republic of Egypt. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  16. ^ a b c d e f "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". IMF. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  17. ^ "الجهاز المركزي للتعبئة العامة والإحصاء" (PDF). www.capmas.gov.eg. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  18. ^ "Gini Index coefficient". The World Factbook. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  19. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  20. ^ Map, Egypt's Projects. "محافظة الأسكندرية". www.egy-map.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  21. ^ Midant-Reynes, Béatrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
  22. ^ "Urban population (% of total population) - Egypt, Arab Rep". World Bank. Archived from the original on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  23. ^ "Lessons from/for BRICSAM about south–north Relations at the Start of the 21st Century: Economic Size Trumps All Else?". International Studies Review. 9.


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