General Information about Egypt

 

Egypt is officially known as the Arab Republic of Egypt and is located in north-eastern Africa and southwestern Asia. Cairo, the capital and largest city, is the most modern in the Middle East and Africa.

It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Israel and the Red Sea, on the south by Sudan, and on the west by Libya. The country has a maximum length from north to south of about 1086 km (about 675 m) and a maximum width, near the southern border, of about 1255 km (about 780 m). It has a total area of about 1,001,450 sq km (about 386,662 sq m). Less than one-tenth of the land area of Egypt is settled or under cultivation, this consists of the valley and delta of the Nile, a number of desert oases, and land along the Suez Canal.

More than 90 percent of the country consists of desert areas: In the west, the Libyan Desert, a part of the Sahara Desert which is also known as the Western Desert. The Libyan Desert includes a vast sandy expanse called the

Great Sand Sea. Located here are several depressions with elevations below sea level, including the Qattara Depression, which has an area of about 18,000 sq km (about 7000 sq m) and reaches a depth of 133 m (436 ft) below sea level, the lowest point in Africa. Also found here are the oases of Siwa, Kharga, baharia, and Dakhla.

In the east the Arabian Desert, also called the Eastern Desert (which borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez). Much of the Arabian Desert occupies a plateau that rises gradually east from the Nile Valley to elevations of about 600 m (about 2000 ft) in the east and is broken along the Red Sea coast by jagged peaks as high as about 2100 m (about 7000 ft) above sea level.

In the extreme south, along the border with Sudan, is the Nubian Desert, an extensive region of dunes and sandy plains.

The Sinai Peninsula consists of sandy desert in the north and rugged mountains in the south, with summits looming more than about 2100 m (about 7000 ft) above the Red Sea. Mount Catherine (Jabal Katrìnah - 2637 m/8652 ft), the highest elevation in Egypt, is in the Sinai Peninsula, as is Mount Sinai (Jabal Mosa), where, according to the Old Testament, Moses received the Ten Commandments.

The Nile enters Egypt from the Sudan and flows north for about 1545 km (about 960 m) to the Mediterranean Sea. For its entire length, from the southern border to Cairo, the Nile flows through a narrow valley lined by cliffs. Lake Nasser, the world's largest man-made reservoir and formed by the Aswan high dam, extends south across the Sudan border. The lake is about 480 km (about 300 m) long and is about 16 km (10 m) across at its widest point. About two-thirds of the lake lies in Egypt.

South of a point near the town of Idfu, the Nile Valley is rarely more than 3 km (2 m) wide. From Idfu to Cairo, the valley is about 23 km (about 14 m) in width, with most of the arable portion on the western side. In the vicinity of Cairo the valley merges with the delta, a fan-shaped plain, the perimeter of which occupies about 250 km (about 155 m) of the Mediterranean coastline. Silt deposited by the Rosetta (Rashid), Damietta (Dumyat), and other distributaries has made the delta the most fertile region in the country. However, the Aswan High Dam has reduced the flow of the Nile, causing the salty waters of the Mediterranean to erode land along the coast near the Nile.

A series of four shallow, brackish lakes extends along the seaward extremity of the delta. Another larger lake, Birkat Qarun, is situated inland in the desert north of the town of Al Fayoum.

Geographically and traditionally, the Nile Valley is divided into two regions, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, the former consisting of the delta area and the latter comprising the valley south of Cairo.

Although Egypt has about 2450 km (about 1520 m) of coastline, two-thirds of which are on the Red Sea, indentations suitable as harbours are confined to the delta. The Isthmus of Suez, which connects the Sinai Peninsula with the African mainland, is traversed from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez by the Suez Canal.

Egypt Fact book

Population: 77,505,756 (July 2005 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 33% (male 13,106,043/female 12,483,899) 15-64 years: 62.6% (male 24,531,266/female 23,972,216) 65 years and over: 4.4% (male 1,457,097/female 1,955,235) (2005 est.) Median age: total: 23.68 years male: 23.31 years female: 24.05 years (2005 est.) Population growth rate: 1.78% (2005 est.) Birth rate: 23.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.) Death rate: 5.26 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.) Net migration rate: -0.22 migrant (s)/1,000 population (2005 est.) Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male (s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male (s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male (s)/female 65 years and over: 0.74 male (s)/female total population: 1.02 male (s)/female (2005 est.) Infant mortality rate: total: 32.59 deaths/1,000 live births male: 33.31 deaths/1,000 live births female: 31.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 71 years male: 68.5 years female: 73.62 years (2005 est.) Total fertility rate: 2.88 children born/woman (2005 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2001 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 12,000 (2001 est.) HIV/AIDS - deaths: 700 (2003 est.) Ethnic groups: Eastern Hamitic stock (Egyptians, Bedouins, and Berbers) 99%,  1% Greek, Nubian, Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) Religions: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 94%, Coptic Christian and other 6% Languages: Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 57.7% male: 68.3% female: 46.9% (2003 est.) Area: total: 1,001,450 sq km land: 995,450 sq km water: 6,000 sq km Land boundaries: total: 2,665 km border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 266 km, Libya 1,115 km, Sudan 1,273 km Coastline: 2,450 km Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation Climate: desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters Terrain: vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta Elevation extremes: lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc Land use: arable land: 2.87% permanent crops: 0.48% other: 96.65% (2001) Irrigated land: 33,000 sq km (1998 est.) Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements Country name: conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt conventional short form: Egypt local long form: Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah local short form: Misr Government type: republic Capital: Cairo National holiday: Revolution Day, 23 July (1952) Constitution: 11 September 1971; amended 22 May 1980 Legal system: based on English common law, Islamic law, and Napoleonic codes; judicial review by Supreme Court and Council of State (oversees validity of administrative decisions); accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory Executive branch: chief of state: President Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK (since 14 October 1981) head of government: Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF (since 9 July 2004) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term; note - a national referendum in May 2005 approved a constitutional amendment that changed the presidential election to a multicandidate popular vote; previously the president was nominated by the People's Assembly and the nomination was validated by a national, popular referendum; last referendum held 26 September 1999; first election under terms of constitutional amendment held 7 September 2005; next election scheduled for 2011 Legislative branch: bicameral system consists of the People's Assembly or Majlis al-Sha'b (454 seats; 444 elected by popular vote, 10 appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms) and the Advisory Council or Majlis al-Shura - which functions only in a consultative role (264 seats; 176 elected by popular vote, 88 appointed by the president; members serve six-year terms; mid-term elections for half the members) elections: People's Assembly - three-phase voting - last held 7 and 20 November, 1 December 2005;(next to be held November-December 2010); Advisory Council - last held May-June 2004 (next to be held May-June 2007) election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NDP 311, NWP 6, Tagammu 2, Tomorrow Party 1, independents 112 (12 seats to be determined by rerun elections, 10 seats appointed by President); Advisory Council - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA Judicial branch: Supreme Constitutional Court Flag description: Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the national emblem (a gold Eagle of Saladin facing the hoist side with a shield superimposed on its chest above a scroll bearing the name of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; design is based on the Arab Liberation flag and similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars, Iraq, which has three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line centered in the white band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band