Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia. It is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. With over 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arab world. Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Arabic is its official language.
About Egypt in brief
Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Arabic is its official language. With over 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arab world. The country continues to face challenges, from political unrest, including the recent 2011 revolution and its aftermath, to terrorism and economic underdevelopment. Egypt’s current government is a semi-presidential republic headed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian or heading an authoritarian regime. Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the African Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The name of Egypt is cognate with Semitic words for Egypt, such as the Hebrew words for “Egypt” and “Mesopotamian”. The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the term Mu-frontier, meaning “frontier of the Nile”, to refer to the terraces of carvings along the Nile Delta in the 10th and 11th century BC. Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was largely Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority.
The great majority of its people live near the banks of the River Nile, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres where the only arable land is found. 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 NileDelta. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt’s territory, are sparsely inhabited. Egypt has the third-largest economy in Africa and the world’s 40th- largest economy by nominal GDP. It is projected to become one of the largest in the world in the 21st century and the 19-largest by PPP. It has a population of about 100 million people, making it the thirteenth-most populous in world and the third most populous in Africa. It was founded in 1776 by King Ramses II of Egypt, who was the first ruler of the Nubian Kingdom. It became a republic in 1922, when it gained independence from the British Empire as a monarchy. In 1958 it merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which dissolved in 1961. In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords, officially withdrawing from theGaza Strip and recognising Israel. It endured social and religious strife and political instability, fighting several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and occupying the Gaza strip intermittently until 1967.
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This page is based on the article Egypt published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
