Egypt

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Egypt

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A country of northeast Africa and the Sinai Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times it was a flourishing kingdom and one of the earliest known civilizations, known for its development of hieroglyphic writing and its achievements in agriculture, art, and architecture. It reached its height during the XVIII dynasty (1570-1342? B.C.) and declined after the seventh century B.C., falling to various conquerors including the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French, and British. Although nominally independent after 1922, it remained a British protectorate until 1936. A military coup in 1952 overthrew King Farouk I's constitutional monarchy, and a republic was established the following year. Cairo is the capital and the largest city. Population: 80,300,000.

 

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British interest in Egypt arose from concern to protect the route to India. Napoleon's occupation in 1798 was terminated by the peace of Amiens three years later, when the country was restored to the Ottoman empire. The opening of the Suez canal in 1869 increased the strategic importance of Egypt, and British troops occupied the country in 1882. A British protectorate was declared in 1914 when Germany's alliance with the Ottoman empire posed a new threat. Nominal independence, under a constitutional monarch, was restored in 1922, but Britain maintained a military base until Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in 1952 and nationalized the canal.

The country is rich in indigenous dance forms, but during the late 19th and 20th centuries it became largely identified with the bastardized cabaret form of belly dance. In 1959 Mahmoud Reda formed the Firqat Reda troupe in order to research disappearing folk dances and re-stage them in theatrical forms, and in 1963 the Ministry of Culture founded a second folkloric ensemble, the National Folkloric Troupe. Both companies are now maintained by the Folk Art section of the Ministry of Culture and tour widely both at home and abroad. Raqs sharqi, the Egyptian solo dance form, has become popular outside the country and is both taught and performed widely, including in the UK by Suraya Hilal. Ballet was introduced in 1958 via the government-sponsored Ballet Institute which was modelled on the Soviet training system and directed by A. Zhukov. This is now part of Cairo's Academy of Arts. Cairo Ballet Company evolved out of the Institute and gave its first performance in 1966 with The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, directed by Lavrovsky. Its repertory includes the classics and some Egyptian works such as The Difficult Days (inspired by events of the 1967 Arab—Israeli war; chor. Abd el Monein Kamel, mus. Mukhtar Ashrafi). The company first toured E. Europe and the USSR during the 1970s, and Japan in 1977. In 1988 Cairo Opera Ballet was founded at the newly rebuilt Opera House, directed by Kamel, with Russian and Ukrainian dancers in its ranks. Contemporary works by Kamel and Béjart among others are combined with a repertory of 19th-century classics. Modern dance has been slow to come to Egypt though the Cairo Opera Dance Theatre was established in 1993 under the direction of Walid Awni.

Egypt (Gk. Aigyptos, Lat. Aegyptus). Archaeological evidence testifies to the existence of trading relations between Egypt and the Greek world in Mycenaean times (second half of the second millennium BC). Literary evidence becomes available in the eighth and seventh centuries and Homer tells the story of Menelaus' visit to Egypt (Odyssey 4. 351). With the establishment of Greek settlements on the North African coast in the seventh century, it was not long before the Greeks secured a foothold in Egypt. They were profoundly impressed by the great antiquity of the country, as well as by its religion, monuments, and customs. They thought that Egypt above all other lands was the repository of ancient wisdom and many Greeks proverbial for their wisdom were supposed to have visited the country in the seventh and sixth centuries (some are known to have done so). Solon is said to have visited the pharaoh Amasis, Thales to have invented geometry after studying ‘land-measurements’ in Egypt. Herodotus travelled widely in Egypt in the mid 5th century and devoted the second book of his history to giving an account of the country. In 462 a large Athenian fleet assisted in an unsuccessful Egyptian revolt against Persian rule (Cambyses had conquered the country in 525), and when the hated Persian monarchy was finally overthrown in 332 BC by Alexander the Great (a Macedonian Greek), the change was not wholly resented. The Macedonian kings who thereafter ruled Egypt were known as the Ptolemies (and Egypt under their rule as Ptolemaic Egypt). In their time the city of Alexandria which Alexander founded became a centre of Greek culture. The Greeks were at first the dominant race there, and the native Egyptians were not regarded as full citizens. Later the Greek element became Egyptianized; the official language was Greek, but Egyptian persisted, to emerge in the Christian period as Coptic. (See also ROSETTA STONE.) The Greek gods were known only as names for local deities (see HARPOCRATES).

Greek rule was in turn brought to an end by the Roman Annexation of Egypt in 30 BC (after the battle of Actium) when the country became a province of peculiar status, being governed by the emperor through an equestrian prefect rather than, as in all other important provinces, a senatorial legate. This special status indicates the value Augustus put upon the province and his appreciation of the temptation it presented to a governor ambitious for wealth and independence. No senator was allowed to set foot in Egypt without the emperor's permission. The first prefect was the soldier-poet Gallus. Egypt with the rest of North Africa was the granary of Rome, eclipsing Sicily in that respect. It had a monopoly in the production of papyri (see BOOKS AND WRITING 1), and was the starting-point for the Indian trade. A general survey of the Nile valley was made and to this we owe the accurate description of it that appears in book 17 of Strabo's Geography (first century AD). The only serious revolt against Roman rule lasted from AD 162 to 166 before being finally put down. In the reign of Caracalla (early third century) Egyptians entered the Roman senate for the first time, and the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis was publicly sanctioned at Rome. Nevertheless, the province was never Romanized, and Greek and native Egyptian elements were united in opposition to Roman government. The Roman era came to an end with the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640.

Arab country controlling northeastern Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the north, Sudan on the south, the Red Sea on the east, and Libya on the west. It consists of three regions: (1) the Nile Valley and Delta (less than 4% of the total area), extending from Sudan north to the Mediterranean; (2) the Eastern Desert - Sinai Peninsula (28%), extending from the Nile Valley to the Gulf of Aqaba and the border with Israel; and (3) the Western Desert (68%), stretching from the Nile Valley west to Libya.

Egypt's geographic position makes the country easy to control and rule. Its society and polity are characterized by central rule and the absence of long-standing regional allegiances. Dependence on the Nile River for irrigation has called for central administration and enabled the government to extend its authority to the distant parts of the land. Because most of the territory is desert, 96 percent of the Egyptian people live on less than 5 percent of the country's total land area, despite a massive land reclamation project that is starting to irrigate parts of the Western Desert.

Population and Social Structure

Egypt is one of the oldest continuously settled lands in the world. Egyptians, except for a few Nubians, speak Arabic. About 90 percent of the people are Muslim, and Islam is the state religion. The Copts are the largest non-Muslim religious group. Estimates of their numbers vary between six million and nine million. In 2003, the total population of Egypt was seventy million and was increasing by one million every ten months. The birth rate in 2002 was 24.4 per thousand and the death rate was 7.6 per thousand; the natural rate of population increase was 16.8 (the world average for the period in question was 13.5).

Half of the Egyptian people are under twenty years of age; two-thirds are under thirty. The number of dependent children supported by working adults is high, a situation that severely strains the economy. Egypt's government and economy are increasingly unable to meet the demands for food, shelter, education, and jobs. Some three million Egyptians have migrated to other Arab countries, particularly the oil-producing states, in search of work. Their remittances to their families constitute a major source of Egypt's hard currency and help to offset the difference between the country's imports and exports.

In contrast to many developing countries, Egypt has a high degree of social and national integration. Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954 - 1970), Anwar al-Sadat (1970 - 1981), and Husni Mubarak (1981 - ) have all spoken proudly about Egypt's national unity, by which they mean the peaceful coexistence between the country's Muslims and Copts. This unity has been tested when Muslim extremists attacked, robbed, and occasionally murdered Copts. The Copts also began to fear growing pressure to apply Islamic law in Egypt, which could weaken their position relative to the Muslim majority.

Population growth has limited Egypt's development efforts by aggravating unemployment, increasing the ratio of mouths eating to hands working, spurring rural migration to urban centers, and diverting resources from investment to consumption. Population rises by almost 2 percent annually, a rate that exceeds the increase of arable land and is far beyond Egypt's educational and industrial development. Although the cropped area almost doubled between 1882 and 1970, the population growth absorbed and exceeded the increase. Once the breadbasket of the ancient world, modern Egypt has had to import cereal grains, making it more dependent on the outside world and vulnerable to the fluctuations of food prices.

Economy

Economic factors have played a crucial role in Egypt's politics. In 1991, inflation was nearly 21.3 percent a year, the national debt was US$25 billion, the gross national product (GNP) per capita was US$600, and the country agreed to a major restructuring program. Indeed, since World War II, Egypt has had a balance-of-payments deficit that has had to be made up from other sources. From 1945 to 1958 it simply drew down existing reserves, which had accumulated during World War II. From 1958 to 1964, Egypt received foreign aid from Eastern and Western sources; from 1965 to 1971, the former Soviet Union paid for most of the deficit; from 1971 to 1977, the aid was primarily from Arab states; and since 1978, support has come from the United States and other Western nations. The rate of inflation in 2001 was 2.3 percent, the national debt was US$29 billion, and the GNP per capita reached US$3,600. The economy declined slightly during the period from 2001 to 2003 and the Egyptian pound has been allowed to float against the U.S. dollar; it lost half its value between 1997 and 2003.

In 1974 Sadat inaugurated his Infitah, or open-door economic policy, to attract foreign investment. He justified it on the following grounds: (1) the failure of Nasser's socialist policies; (2) the availability of capital from Arab oil-producing countries; and (3) the superpowers' détente. From an economic standpoint, the Infitah's main purposes were twofold: to attract export-oriented foreign enterprises by setting up duty-free zones and to attract foreign capital through a liberal investment policy. Its ultimate goal was to develop Egypt's economy through joint ventures and projects, combining Egyptian labor, Arab capital, and Western technology and entrepreneurship.

Egypt's policy of liberal reform led to a restructuring of its economy. In 1991 the government implemented financial stabilization (unifying the rate of exchange, reducing subsidies) and started a program of structural adjustment (privatization and trade liberalization). The economy grew rapidly during the 1990s but stagnated in the early twenty-first century. Per capita GDP skyrocketed, and imports exceeded exports in value by a factor of three to one, but the deficit was made up by remittances, Suez Canal tolls, pipeline fees, and tourism. After the terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center in September 2001, most of these sources diminished. The trade deficit in the first quarter of 2002 was US$1.6 billion. In addition, the gap between rich and poor Egyptians widened perceptibly as a result of both Sadat's Infitah policy and the economic restructuring. In 2000 it was estimated that the top tenth of Egyptians enjoyed 25 percent of the national income, while the bottom tenth earned only 4.4 percent.

History and Politics

On 1 July 1798 the people of Alexandria watched some 400 French ships in the Mediterranean bring 34,000 soldiers and 16,000 sailors to Egypt. Led by Napoléon Bonaparte, this expedition subjected Egypt, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, to direct confrontation with European expansionism. The occupation was harsh and stirred up popular resistance in Cairo, but it took a joint Anglo-Ottoman expeditionary force to expel the French in 1801. Following France's withdrawal, a popular uprising in Cairo forced the Ottoman government to name Muhammad Ali as governor of Egypt. Ruling from 1805 to 1848, Muhammad Ali modernized Egypt's administrative, economic, and military structures by introducing Western methods and technologies on a large scale.

In 1854, during the reign of his son, Saʿid Pasha, a French diplomat secured permission to build a maritime canal across the Isthmus of Suez. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 greatly increased Egypt's strategic importance to the European powers and helped attract large numbers of Europeans to settle in Egypt's main cities. The Egyptian government also borrowed large sums of money from European banks at ruinous rates of interest, resulting in a state debt of 100 million Egyptian pounds by the end of the reign of Muhammad Ali's grandson, Ismaʿil ibn Ibrahim, in 1879. Egypt's European creditors established the Caisse de la Dette Publique (Fund for the Public Debt) to supervise the collection and disbursement of government revenues in 1876, followed later in that same year by the Office of Dual Financial Control. By 1881, the government was frantically cutting its expenditures to avert bankruptcy, contributing to the rise of a reformist movement led by Ahmad Urabi. The British intervened to suppress the revolt, bombarding Alexandria on 11 July 1882 and occupying Cairo nine weeks later, marking the start of an occupation that would last for seventy-four years. Initially British rule took the form of a veiled protectorate, honoring Ottoman suzerainty and the authority of the khedive (Egyptian ruler) and his ministers, although in reality Egypt was governed by Sir Evelyn Baring (later Lord Cromer) and his successors. In December 1914, following the Ottoman entry into World War I on the German side, the British government proclaimed a formal protectorate over Egypt.

Following the war, a nationwide revolution, led by Saʿd Zaghlul, broke out. His movement, known as the Wafd, achieved success on 28 February 1922, when Britain formally terminated the protectorate, proclaimed Egypt a sovereign, independent kingdom, and reserved four issues for future negotiations: (1) imperial communications, (2) defense, (3) minorities, and (4) the Sudan. On 15 March 1922 Ahmad Fuʾad was proclaimed king, and a constitution was issued on 9 April 1923. Free elections were held in two stages, resulting in a large parliamentary majority for the Wafd, which reconstituted itself as a political party.

From 1923 to 1936, negotiations took place on the four reserved points. The 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty settled most of the issues between the two countries. Britain's troops remained in Alexandria, Cairo, and the Suez Canal Zone. The treaty was opposed, however, by a number of political forces, including the popular Muslim Brotherhood. On 15 October 1951, Egypt's government unilaterally abrogated the treaty and Egyptian commandos attacked British soldiers and installations in the Canal Zone. Egypt's military defeat in the Arab-Israel War of 1948 coincided with social and political instability that had begun in the early 1940s as a result of increasing class disparities, uncontrolled urbanization, and labor unrest.

Egypt's government failed to respond to these conditions, nor did it respect the will of the people. The monarchy violated or suspended the 1923 constitution and dissolved parliaments whenever its power was threatened. The Wafd, the political party that won every election that was not rigged, held power less than eight years altogether and was dismissed from office on four separate occasions. Between 1923 and 1952, no popularly elected Egyptian parliament ever completed its term, and the average life of a cabinet was less than eighteen months.

These tensions led to frequent demonstrations, widespread political alienation, and the growth of revolutionary movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Young Egypt Party, Communist organizations, and the Free Officers. The insistence of the palace on absolute rule, the opposition of the ruling class to reform, and Britain's rigid refusal to withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone led the Egyptians to believe that only revolution could bring about reform. On 23 July 1952, the army seized control; three days later King Farouk abdicated in favor of his infant son. In June 1953, the monarchy was terminated and a republic was declared. All political parties, including the Wafd and the Muslim Brotherhood, were abolished.

From 1952 to 1970, the basic characteristics of Egypt's government under Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser were military dictatorship, concentration of power, emphasis on mobilization rather than participation, and the supremacy of the executive branch. In the absence of political parties, three successive organizations became vehicles for political mobilization: the Liberation Rally (1953 - 1956), the National Union (1956 - 1962), and the Arab Socialist Union (1962 - 1977). An imbalance clearly existed between politics and administration. The bureaucracy, police, and army far eclipsed interest groups and political organizations. Whenever possible, the government attempted to penetrate and dominate groups such as trade unions, professional societies, and religious institutions. During the same period, the state took control of the economy in order to achieve rapid development and social justice, a policy known as Arab Socialism.

After Nasser's death in 1970, Egypt's political system began to change. The ruling elite became increasingly civilianized, and a pluralistic political culture began to emerge. Anwar al-Sadat professionalized the army, disengaged it from politics, and appointed more civilians to high posts. For the first time since 1952, civilians held the posts of vice president and prime minister. The gradual democratization of the political structure led in 1977 to the formation of a controlled multiparty system. Domestically, Sadat was eager to establish his legitimacy apart from Nasser's. Most Egyptians acknowledged that the Arab Socialist Union had failed as an instrument of popular mobilization, and intellectuals and professional associations came to advocate political pluralism. Sadat often called for popular plebiscites to ratify his policies, such as the peace treaty with Israel. Externally, Sadat's rapprochement with the United States and his desire to make Egypt seem more democratic reinforced these trends. Although Sadat was assassinated by Islamist militants in 1981, his successor, Husni Mubarak, has cautiously allowed the democratization process to continue by holding multiparty parliamentary elections at regular intervals.

The judiciary, an independent and respected institution, referees many issues, including the formation of new political parties. Applications for new parties must be submitted to a government committee whose decisions are subject to judicial review. Since the committee was established in 1977, it has never approved any applications, but its rejections have been reversed by court verdicts, thus allowing new parties to form.

In 2002, Egypt had fourteen political parties. The most important were the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), headed by President Husni Mubarak and claiming 85 percent of all parliamentary seats; the Socialist Labor Party, led by Ibrahim Shukri, which adheres to Islamist ideology and formerly had a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood; and the leftist National Progressive Unionist Party, also called Tajammu, led by Khalid Muhyi al-Din. The other parties are the New Wafd, Socialist Labor, Umma, Socialists, Greens, Social Justice, Democratic Union, Nasserist Arab Democrats, Misr al-Fatat (Young Egypt), Democratic Peoples, and Takaful (Solidarity). Few of these parties play any meaningful role in parliament, and only the NDP actually takes part in Egypt's government. Islamist movements, no matter how many Egyptians support them, are not recognized as political parties.

Since 1977, Egypt's political life has been dominated by the NDP, which has not become a credible political force. All of Egypt's political parties suffer from lack of a strong organization and a coherent ideology. Opposition parties have been reluctant to compromise and have failed to master coalition politics. Ideological cleavages, historical legacies, and leadership rivalries have kept them from working together to challenge the NDP. In the 2000 elections, the ruling party won 388 of the 444 seats in Egypt's parliament.

Egypt has not succeeded in integrating Islamist groups into the political process. The Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to make the shariʿa the law for the country, had approximately fifty members in parliament in 1987 - 1990. Their boycott of the 1990 parliamentary elections and their opposition to the government during the Gulf War weakened their position, yet they remain the most influential Islamist group. Members of the parliament elected in 2000 who were listed as independent were mainly Muslim Brothers. Smaller but more militant Islamist groups, such as al-Jihad and al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya, have resorted to violence against government officials, foreign tourists, and Copts, especially between 1992 and 1997. By 1992, Islamist groups controlled most university student unions and professors' associations, as well as a number of professional societies (e.g., of engineers, physicians, pharmacists, and lawyers), and the state passed laws in 1995 to limit their influence. The Egyptian government's efforts to weaken the militant groups have curbed terrorism, but at grave cost to human rights and its own legitimacy. Thousands of Islamists languish in Egyptian prisons, often without having been tried and convicted of any crime. The Islamist newspapers and magazines were closed after Sadat's assassination and have not been allowed to reopen. Mosque sermons are monitored, and any expression of Islamist militancy is suppressed. It is noteworthy that four of the nineteen men implicated in the 11 September 2001 attack against the United States were Egyptians.

Both Islamists and the Egyptian government have stifled the growth of a civil society. For publishing scholarly articles critiquing early Arabic literature, Nasr Abu Zayd, a Cairo University professor, was obliged to leave Egypt after a secular court, inspired by Islamists, asked his wife to divorce him for allegedly renouncing Islam. Saʿd alDin Ibrahim, a respected sociologist, was tried and condemned to hard labor by a military court for defaming Egypt, accepting foreign money for his research center without government authorization, embezzlement, and bribing public officials. After a widespread public outcry, he was released, retried by a civilian court, and set free. Neither case speaks well for the independence of Egypt's judiciary.

What is the balance sheet for the democratization process in Egypt? On the positive side are a liberal tradition, a strong sense of national identity, and a complex civil society. Another positive element is a middle class that has organized itself into a growing network of business associations, trade unions, and professional syndicates, thus helping to form a civil society outside the political process. On the negative side, Egypt has a tradition of authoritarianism. The ruling elite has grown up with and worked within a single-party system. The ruling and opposition parties have little internal democracy. Many parties espouse ideologies that are incompatible with democratic institutions. The government uses the armed forces and the police to stifle dissent, creating an atmosphere of fear and leading to either apathy or conspiracies against public order. Ultimately, Egypt's democracy and political stability will rest on its ability to increase economic production and to narrow the yawning gap between the few rich and the many poor.

Bibliography

Amin, Galal. Whatever Happened to the Egyptians?: Changes inEgyptian Society from 1950 to the Present. New York; Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000.

Fahmy, Ninette. The Politics of Egypt: State-Society Relationship. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Goldschmidt, Arthur, Jr. Modern Egypt: The Formation of aNation-State. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1988.

Hopwood, Derek. Egypt: Politics and Society, 1945 - 1990, 3d edition. New York; London: HarperCollins, 1991.

Kienle, Eberhard. A Grand Delusion: Democracy and EconomicReform in Egypt. New York; London: I.B. Tauris, 2001.

Vatikiotis, P. J. The History of Modern Egypt from Muhammad Ali to Mubarak, 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Waterbury, John. The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat: The PoliticalEconomy of Two Regimes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Weaver, Mary Anne. A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey through theWorld of Militant Islam. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999.

— ALI E. HILLAL DESSOUKI
UPDATED BY ARTHUR GOLDSCHMIDT

Officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, a country in northeastern Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Israel and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The principal geographic feature of the country is the Nile River. Its capital and largest city is Cairo. (See also Alexandria.)

• Egypt is the site of one of man's earliest civilizations, which flourished from about 3100 b.c. to 30 b.c., when it became part of the Roman Empire. Many ancient works of art and architecture survive, including the pyramids and the Sphinx.
• Egypt was the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel (see Arab-Israeli conflict), a feat accomplished after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel in 1977 to meet Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Sadat was later assassinated by Muslim extremists.

The international dialing code for Egypt is:   20

It is 10:46 PM, November 22, in Egypt.

Egyptian Pound

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Background:

The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C., and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty with the overthrow of the British-backed monarchy in 1952. 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 (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to meet the demands of Egypt's growing population through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure.

Location:	Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula
Geographic coordinates:	27 00 N, 30 00 E
Map references:	Africa
Area:	total: 1,001,450 sq km land: 995,450 sq km water: 6,000 sq km
Area - comparative:	slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico
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: 2.92% permanent crops: 0.5% other: 96.58% (2005)
Irrigated land:	34,220 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources:	86.8 cu km (1997)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):	total: 68.3 cu km/yr (8%/6%/86%) per capita: 923 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards:	periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes; flash floods; landslides; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring; dust storms; sandstorms
Environment - current issues:	agricultural land being lost to urbanization and windblown sands; increasing soil salination below Aswan High Dam; desertification; oil pollution threatening coral reefs, beaches, and marine habitats; other water pollution from agricultural pesticides, raw sewage, and industrial effluents; limited natural fresh water resources away from the Nile, which is the only perennial water source; rapid growth in population overstraining the Nile and natural resources
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
Geography - note:	controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between Africa and remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, a sea link between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics; dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues; prone to influxes of refugees

Population:	83,082,869 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 31.4% (male 13,345,500/female 12,743,878) 15-64 years: 63.8% (male 26,823,127/female 26,169,421) 65 years and over: 4.8% (male 1,701,068/female 2,299,875) (2009 est.)
Median age:	total: 24.8 years male: 24.4 years female: 25.2 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate:	1.642% (2009 est.)
Birth rate:	21.7 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate:	5.09 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate:	-0.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization:	urban population: 43% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 1.8% annual rate of change (2005-10 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 (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 27.26 deaths/1,000 live births male: 28.93 deaths/1,000 live births female: 25.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 72.12 years male: 69.56 years female: 74.81 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate:	2.66 children born/woman (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:	less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:	9,200 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:	fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
Major infectious diseases:	degree of risk: intermediate food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne disease: Rift Valley fever water contact disease: schistosomiasis note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
Nationality:	noun: Egyptian(s) adjective: Egyptian
Ethnic groups:	Egyptian 99.6%, other 0.4% (2006 census)
Religions:	Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Coptic 9%, other Christian 1%
Languages:	Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 71.4% male: 83% female: 59.4% (2005 est.)
Education expenditures:	4.2% of GDP (2006)

Country name:	conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt conventional short form: Egypt local long form: Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah local short form: Misr former: United Arab Republic (with Syria)
Government type:	republic
Capital:	name: Cairo geographic coordinates: 30 03 N, 31 15 E time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in April; ends last Thursday in September
Administrative divisions:	26 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ad Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar (Red Sea), Al Buhayrah (El Beheira), Al Fayyum (El Faiyum), Al Gharbiyah, Al Iskandariyah (Alexandria), Al Isma'iliyah (Ismailia), Al Jizah (Giza), Al Minufiyah (El Monofia), Al Minya, Al Qahirah (Cairo), Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid (New Valley), As Suways (Suez), Ash Sharqiyah, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf (Beni Suef), Bur Sa'id (Port Said), Dumyat (Damietta), Janub Sina' (South Sinai), Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh (Western Desert), Qina (Qena), Shamal Sina' (North Sinai), Suhaj (Sohag)
Independence:	28 February 1922 (from the UK)
National holiday:	Revolution Day, 23 July (1952)
Constitution:	11 September 1971; amended 22 May 1980, 25 May 2005, and 26 March 2007
Legal system:	based on Islamic and civil law (particularly 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 Mohamed Hosni MUBARAK (since 14 October 1981) head of government: Prime Minister Ahmed Mohamed NAZIF (since 9 July 2004) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term (no term limits); 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 election results: Hosni MUBARAK reelected president; percent of vote - Hosni MUBARAK 88.6%, Ayman NOUR 7.6%, Noman GOMAA 2.9%
Legislative branch:	bicameral system consists of the Advisory Council or Majlis al-Shura (Shura Council) that traditionally functions only in a consultative role but 2007 constitutional amendments could grant the Council new powers (264 seats; 176 elected by popular vote, 88 appointed by the president; members serve six-year terms; mid-term elections for half of the elected members) and 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) elections: Advisory Council - last held June 2007 (next to be held May-June 2010); People's Assembly - three-phase voting - last held 7 and 20 November, 1 December 2005; (next to be held November-December 2010) election results: Advisory Council - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NDP 84, Tagammu 1, independents 3; 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)
Judicial branch:	Supreme Constitutional Court
Political parties and leaders:	National Democratic Party or NDP (governing party) [Mohamed Hosni MUBARAK]; National Progressive Unionist Grouping or Tagammu [Rifaat EL-SAID]; New Wafd Party or NWP [Mahmoud ABAZA]; Tomorrow Party [Moussa Mustafa MOUSSA] note: formation of political parties must be approved by the government; only parties with representation in elected bodies are listed
Political pressure groups and leaders:	Muslim Brotherhood (technically illegal) note: despite a constitutional ban against religious-based parties and political activity, the technically illegal Muslim Brotherhood constitutes Hosni MUBARAK's potentially most significant political opposition; MUBARAK has alternated between tolerating limited political activity by the Brotherhood (its members, who ran as independents, hold 88 seats in the People's Assembly)and blocking its influence; civic society groups are sanctioned, but constrained in practical terms; only trade unions and professional associations affiliated with the government are officially sanctioned; Internet social networking groups and bloggers
International organization participation:	ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, BSEC (observer), CAEU, COMESA, EBRD, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador Sameh Hassan SHOUKRY chancery: 3521 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 895-5400 FAX: [1] (202) 244-4319 consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco
Diplomatic representation from the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador Margaret SCOBEY embassy: 8 Kamal El Din Salah St., Garden City, Cairo mailing address: Unit 64900, Box 15, APO AE 09839-4900; 5 Tawfik Diab Street, Garden City, Cairo telephone: [20] (2) 2797-3300 FAX: [20] (2) 2797-3200
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 in the white band, Iraq, which has an Arabic inscription centered in the white band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band

Economy - overview:	Occupying the northeast corner of the African continent, Egypt is bisected by the highly fertile Nile valley, where most economic activity takes place. Egypt's economy was highly centralized during the rule of former President Gamal Abdel NASSER but has opened up considerably under former President Anwar EL-SADAT and current President Mohamed Hosni MUBARAK. Cairo has aggressively pursued economic reforms to encourage inflows of foreign investment and facilitate GDP growth. In 2005, Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF's government reduced personal and corporate tax rates, reduced energy subsidies, and privatized several enterprises. The stock market boomed, and GDP grew about 7% each year since 2006. Despite these achievements, the government has failed to raise living standards for the average Egyptian, and has had to continue providing subsidies for basic necessities. The subsidies have contributed to a sizeable budget deficit - roughly 7% of GDP in 2007-08 - and represent a significant drain on the economy. Foreign direct investment has increased significantly in the past two years, but the NAZIF government will need to continue its aggressive pursuit of reforms in order to sustain the spike in investment and growth and begin to improve economic conditions for the broader population. Egypt's export sectors - particularly natural gas - have bright prospects.
GDP (purchasing power parity):	$442.6 billion (2008 est.) $414.1 billion (2007) $386.6 billion (2006) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):	$158.3 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:	6.9% (2008 est.) 7.1% (2007 est.) 6.8% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):	$5,400 (2008 est.) $5,200 (2007 est.) $4,900 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:	agriculture: 13.4% industry: 37.6% services: 48.9% (2008 est.)
Labor force:	24.72 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:	agriculture: 32% industry: 17% services: 51% (2001 est.)
Unemployment rate:	8.7% (2008 est.)
Population below poverty line:	20% (2005 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:	lowest 10%: 3.7% highest 10%: 29.5% (2000)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:	34.4 (2001)
Investment (gross fixed):	17% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:	revenues: $40.46 billion expenditures: $51.38 billion (2008 est.)
Fiscal year:	1 July - 30 June
Public debt:	84.7% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):	18% (2008 est.)
Central bank discount rate:	9% (31 December 2007)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:	12.51% (31 December 2007)
Stock of money:	$27.6 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:	$102.6 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:	$113.9 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:	$139.3 billion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:	cotton, rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruits, vegetables; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats
Industries:	textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hydrocarbons, construction, cement, metals, light manufactures
Industrial production growth rate:	7.7% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:	109.1 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - consumption:	96.2 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:	557 million kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - imports:	208 million kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - production by source:	fossil fuel: 81% hydro: 19% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)
Oil - production:	664,000 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:	652,700 bbl/day (2006 est.)
Oil - exports:	204,700 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - imports:	140,000 bbl/day (2005)
Oil - proved reserves:	3.7 billion bbl (1 January 2008 est.)
Natural gas - production:	47.5 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:	31.8 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:	15.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:	0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:	1.656 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)
Current account balance:	$1.483 billion (2008 est.)
Exports:	$33.36 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:	crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicals
Exports - partners:	US 9.7%, Italy 9.5%, Spain 7.6%, Syria 5.5%, Saudi Arabia 4.9%, UK 4.2% (2007)
Imports:	$56.43 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:	machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, wood products, fuels
Imports - partners:	US 11.7%, China 9.7%, Italy 6.4%, Germany 6.3%, Saudi Arabia 4.7%, Russia 4.3% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:	$36.91 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Debt - external:	$28.84 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:	$59.03 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:	$2.28 billion (2008 est.)
Currency (code):	Egyptian pound (EGP)
Currency code:	EGP
Exchange rates:	Egyptian pounds (EGP) per US dollar - 5.4 (2008 est.), 5.67 (2007), 5.725 (2006), 5.78 (2005), 6.1962 (2004)

Telephones - main lines in use:	11.229 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular:	30.065 million (2007)
Telephone system:	general assessment: large system; underwent extensive upgrading during 1990s and is reasonably modern; Telecom Egypt, the landline monopoly, has been increasing service availability and in 2007 fixed-line density stood at 14 per 100 persons; as of 2007 there were three mobile-cellular networks and service is expanding rapidly domestic: principal centers at Alexandria, Cairo, Al Mansurah, Ismailia, Suez, and Tanta are connected by coaxial cable and microwave radio relay international: country code - 20; landing point for both the SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable networks; linked to the international submarine cable FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe); satellite earth stations - 4 (2 Intelsat - Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, 1 Arabsat, and 1 Inmarsat); tropospheric scatter to Sudan; microwave radio relay to Israel; a participant in Medarabtel (2007)
Radio broadcast stations:	AM 42 (plus 15 repeaters), FM 11, shortwave 3 (1999)
Radios:	20.5 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:	98 (September 1995)
Televisions:	7.7 million (1997)
Internet country code:	.eg
Internet hosts:	175,342 (2008)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):	50 (2000)
Internet users:	8.62 million (2007)

Airports:	85 (2008)
Airports - with paved runways:	total: 71 over 3,047 m: 15 2,438 to 3,047 m: 35 1,524 to 2,437 m: 15 914 to 1,523 m: 2 under 914 m: 4 (2008)
Airports - with unpaved runways:	total: 14 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 914 to 1,523 m: 5 under 914 m: 5 (2008)
Heliports:	3 (2007)
Pipelines:	condensate 320 km; condensate/gas 13 km; gas 5,586 km; liquid petroleum gas 956 km; oil 4,314 km; oil/gas/water 3 km; refined products 895 km; unknown 59 km; water 9 km (2008)
Railways:	total: 5,063 km standard gauge: 5,063 km 1.435-m gauge (62 km electrified) (2006)
Roadways:	total: 92,370 km paved: 74,820 km unpaved: 17,550 km (2004)
Waterways:	3,500 km note: includes Nile River, Lake Nasser, Alexandria-Cairo Waterway, and numerous smaller canals in delta; Suez Canal (193.5 km including approaches) navigable by oceangoing vessels drawing up to 17.68 m (2007)
Merchant marine:	total: 67 by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 28, container 2, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 9 foreign-owned: 10 (Denmark 1, Greece 8, Lebanon 1) registered in other countries: 58 (Cambodia 13, Georgia 12, Honduras 3, North Korea 1, Malta 1, Moldova 1, Panama 17, Saint Kitts and Nevis 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3, Saudi Arabia 1, Sierra Leone 3, Togo 1) (2008)
Ports and terminals:	Ayn Sukhnah, Alexandria, Damietta, El Dekheila, Sidi Kurayr, Suez

Military branches:	Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Command
Military service age and obligation:	18-30 years of age for male conscript military service; service obligation 12-36 months, followed by a 9-year reserve obligation (2008)
Manpower available for military service:	males age 16-49: 21,247,777 females age 16-49: 20,406,408 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:	males age 16-49: 18,490,522 females age 16-49: 17,719,905 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:	male: 831,157 female: 792,330 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures:	3.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Disputes - international:	while Sudan retains claim to the Hala'ib Triangle north of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd Parallel, both states withdrew their military presence in the 1990s and Egypt has invested in and effectively administers the area; Egypt no longer shows its administration of the Bir Tawil trapezoid in Sudan on its maps; Gazan breaches in the security wall with Egypt in January 2008 highlight difficulties in monitoring the Sinai border
Refugees and internally displaced persons:	refugees (country of origin): 60,000 - 80,000 (Iraq); 70,198 (Palestinian Territories); 12,157 (Sudan) (2007)
Trafficking in persons:	current situation: Egypt is a transit country for women trafficked from Eastern European countries to Israel for sexual exploitation, and is a source for children trafficked within the country for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, although the extent to which children are trafficked internally is unknown; children were also recruited for domestic and agricultural work; some of these children face conditions of involuntary servitude, such as restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Egypt is on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third year in a row because it did not provide evidence of increasing efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers; however, in July 2007, the government established the "National Coordinating Committee to Combat and Prevent Trafficking in Persons," which improved inter-governmental coordination on anti-trafficking initiatives; Egypt made no discernible efforts to punish trafficking crimes in 2007 and the Egyptian penal code does not prohibit all forms of trafficking; Egypt did not increase its services to trafficking victims during the reporting period (2008)
Illicit drugs:	transit point for cannabis, heroin, and opium moving to Europe, Israel, and North Africa; transit stop for Nigerian drug couriers; concern as money laundering site due to lax enforcement of financial regulations

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Recipes

Ful Mudammas (Broad Beans in Sauce)
Koushari (Lentils, Macaroni, Rice, and Chickpeas)
Shai (Mint Tea) and Baklava
Lemon and Garlic Potato Salad
Gebna Makleyah (Oven-Fried Cheese)
Bamia (Sweet and Sour Okra)
'Irea (Cinnamon Beverage)
Khoshaf
Lettuce Salad
Spinach with Garlic

Geographic Setting and Environment

The Arab Republic of Egypt is located in the northeastern region of the African continent, bordering both the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The climate is arid and dry and most of the country receives less than one inch of rainfall each year. The Mediterranean may offer Egypt's northern coastline up to eight inches of rainfall each year, and keeps year-round temperatures cooler than the inland deserts. The widespread lack of rainfall makes it extremely difficult to grow crops. Egypt has no forests and only 2 percent of the land is arable (land that can be farmed).

The well-known Nile River, the longest river in the world, runs north and south through eastern Egypt and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile River Valley, which includes the capital city of Cairo, is the most fertile land in Egypt. Approximately 95 percent of the country's population lives alongside the Nile River. However, overcrowding in this region is threatening Egypt's wildlife and endangering the Nile's water supply.

History and Food

Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians left evidence of their love for food. Well-preserved wall paintings and carvings have been discovered on tombs and temples, depicting large feasts and a variety of foods. Many of these ancient foods are still eaten in Egyptian households today. Peas, beans, cucumbers, dates, figs, and grapes were popular fruits and vegetables in ancient times. Wheat and barley, ancient staple crops, were used to make bread and beer. Fish and poultry were also popular. Dried fish was prepared by cleaning the fish, coating the pieces with salt, and placing them the sun to dry. Fasieekh (salted, dried fish) remained a popular meal in Egypt as of 2000.

The unique Egyptian cuisine has been influenced throughout history, particularly by its neighbors from the Middle East. Persians (modern-day Iraqis), Greeks, Romans (modern-day Italians), Arabs, and Ottomans (from modern-day Turkey) first influenced Egyptian cuisine thousands of years ago. More recently, the foods of other Arabic people in the Middle East such as the Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, as well as some foods from Europe, have affected the Egyptian diet. However, Egyptian cuisine maintains its uniqueness. After thousands of years, rice and bread remain staple foods, and molokhiyya (a spinach-like vegetable) and ful mudammas (cooked, creamy fava beans), a national dish, are nearly as popular as long ago.

See Ful Mudammas (Broad Beans in Sauce) recipe.

Foods of the Egyptians

Egypt has a variety of national dishes. Ful (pronounced "fool," bean paste), tahini (sesame paste), koushari (lentils, macaroni, rice, and chickpeas), aish baladi (a pita-like bread), kofta (spicy, minced lamb), and kebab (grilled lamb pieces) are the most popular.

See Koushari (Lentils, Macaroni, Rice, and Chickpeas) recipe.

See Shai (Mint Tea) and Baklava recipe.

See Lemon and Garlic Potato Salad recipe.

See Gebna Makleyah (Oven-Fried Cheese) recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

Approximately 90 percent of Egyptians are Muslims, which means they practice the religion of Islam. The most important time of the year for Muslims is a monthlong holiday called Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan (the ninth month on the Islamic calendar, usually November or December), Muslims fast (do not eat or drink) from sunrise to sunset, and think about people around the world who do not have enough food. Muslim families will often come together to prepare hearty meals, including a variety of sweets, after sunset. Muslims end Ramadan with a three-day celebration called Eid al-Fitr.

Eid al-Adha, a three-day long "great feast," is another important holiday for Muslims. In recognition of the Bible story of Abraham's sacrifice of his son, Jacob, families will sacrifice (kill) a sheep or a lamb. The animal is slaughtered and cooked whole on a spit over an open fire, and some of the meat is usually given to poorer families. These animals are also sacrificed on other important occasions, such as births, deaths, or marriages.

Throughout the year, several moulids may take place. A moulid is a day (or as long as a week) celebrating the birthday of a local saint or holy person. Several events take place during this time. Food stands decorating the town's streets are usually set up near the holy person's tomb. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, celebrates at least three moulids every year. The largest moulid, Moulid el Nabit, commemorates the birthday of Muhammad and takes place in Cairo in early August.

Just under 10 percent of Egypt's population are Christians, whose most important holiday is Easter, falling in either March or April. It is common for families to come together to share a hearty meal, much as Christians worldwide do. Egyptian Christians observe the Orthodox calendar, which places Christmas on January 7 each year.

See Bamia (Sweet and Sour Okra) recipe.

See 'Irea (Cinnamon Beverage) recipe.

See Khoshaf recipe.

See Lettuce Salad recipe.

Mealtime Customs

Dining customs vary throughout the country and between different religions. When guests are in the presence of Muslims (who make up approximately 90 percent of Egypt's population), there are some general guidelines one should follow. The left hand is considered unclean and should not be used for eating, feet should always been tucked under the table, and alcohol and pork should not be requested.

When invited to be a guest in an Egyptian household, it is polite for guests to bring a small gift to the host, such as flowers or chocolate, to show their appreciation for the meal. Before dinner, cocktails (often nonalcoholic) are frequently served. This is a time for socializing and becoming acquainted. Mezze (salads and dips) would also be served at this time. When dinner is ready, usually between 9 P.M. and 10 P.M., guests seat themselves and food is placed in the middle of the table. Bread will almost always accompany meals, which may include vegetables, rice dishes, soups, and meat dishes. Following dinner, guests will move into another room and enjoy coffee or mint tea. Guests should always compliment the cook.

Most Egyptian peasants cannot afford a large meal. Their diet includes vegetables, lentils, and beans. Meat, which is more costly, is eaten on special occasions. Most middle-class families eat a similar diet, but add more expensive ingredients when they can afford to. All social classes, however, enjoy quick bites at Egyptian cafes or street vendors. Traditional teahouses will serve tea in tall glasses (rather than teacups) and cafes normally offer strong, sweet Turkish coffee. Street vendors sell a variety of inexpensive foods, including ful (fava beans) and koushari (a macaroni, rice, and lentil dish) as a lunchtime favorite. Vendors also sell a variety of asiir (fresh-squeezed juices) made from fruits like banana, guava, mango, pomegranate, strawberry, from sugar cane, and even hibiscus flowers.

See Spinach with Garlic recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

In 1999, agriculture made up approximately 16 percent of Egypt's economy, employing about one-third of all Egyptians. However, Egypt's agriculture is also contributing to the slowing of economic growth. A shortage of arable land (land that can be farmed) has become a serious problem. The lack of farmable land has caused Egyptian farmers to move to other countries.

Irrigation necessary to grow its major crops, such as sugar cane, barley, wheat, corn, cotton, and rice, is also a growing problem. The Nile River is Egypt's main water source for both drinking and irrigation, and overuse could risk the country's delicate water supply. More than two thousand years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." Without the Nile River, Egypt would be virtually dry and crops to prevent hunger and malnutrition could not grow. Much in part to the irrigation from the Nile River, Egypt has one of the lowest childhood malnourishment rates on the continent. About 9 percent of children younger than five were considered malnourished.

Further Study

Books

APA Productions. Insight Guide: Egypt. New York: Langenscheidt Publishers, 1999.

Balkwill, Richard. Food and Feasts in Ancient Egypt. New York: New Discovery, 1994.

Haag, Michael. Cadogan Guide to Egypt. London: Cadogan Books, 1998.

Hachten, Harva. Best of Regional African Cooking. New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1998.

Imeme, Sally-Anne, and Stefan Cucos, eds. Odyssey Guides: Egypt. Chicago: Passport Books, 1997.

Lonely Planet: Egypt. 5^th ed. Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd., 1999.

Mallos, Tess. The Complete Middle East Cookbook. Boston: Tuttle, 1993.

Web Sites

Recipes for Food and Cuisine in Egypt. [Online] Available http://touregypt.net/recipes/ (accessed January 28, 2001).

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To people throughout history, Egypt has seemed the very birthplace of magic. In Egypt the peoples of the ancient world found a magical system more sophisticated than any other that was known. The emphasis on death and the care of the human corpse, central to Egyptian religion, seemed to other cultures to be suggestive of magic practice. As with all other systems, the Egyptians' magic consisted of two different kinds: that which was supposed to benefit either the living or the dead; and, that which has been known throughout the ages as black magic or necromancy.

The contents of the Westcar Papyrus show that as early as the fourth dynasty the working of magic was a recognized art in Egypt, while evidence suggests Egyptian magic practice began in neolithic times. Egyptians used magic for numerous purposes, including exorcizing storms and protecting themselves and their loved ones against wild beasts, poison, disease, wounds, and the ghosts of the dead. Throughout the centuries, the practice varied considerably evan as the principal means of operation remained the same: amulets; spells; magic books, pictures, and formulas; magical names and ceremonies; and the general apparatus of the occult sciences. The use of amulets was one of the most potent methods of guarding against any misfortune.

Not all ornaments or objects discovered on the mummy related to magical potency. These were frequently the possession of the ka or double, necessary to its comfort in a future existence. The small crowns, scepters, and emblems of Osiris, usually done in glazed earthenware or pottery, were placed beside the dead person. This ensured that he could wear them when he became one with the god Osiris, and consequently a king. The scarab, made in the likeness of a scarabaeus beetle, symbolized resurrection. The dad symbolized the human skeleton, and, possibly, the dead and dismembered Osiris. This was thought to have an influence on the restoration of the deceased. The uza, or eye, signified the health necessary to the dead person's soul.

The so-called palettes, originally thought to be used for the mixing of paint, are now known to have been amulets inscribed with words of power and placed on the breasts of the dead in neolithic times. The menat was worn, or held, with the sistrum (a musical instrument) by gods, kings, and priests and was supposed to bring joy and health to the wearer. It represented the vigor of the two sexes.

The simplest type of magic spell used in Egypt was that in which the exorcist threatened the evil principle, or assured it that he could injure it. In general, the magician requested the assistance of the gods, or pretended that he was a god. Invocations, when written, were usually accompanied by a note to the effect that the formula had once been employed successfully by a god—perhaps by a deified priest.

An incomprehensible and mysterious jargon was employed that was supposed to conceal the name of a certain deity. This deity was thus compelled to do the will of the sorcerer. These gods were usually the gods of foreign nations. The invocations themselves appear to be attempts at various foreign idioms, likely employed because they sounded more mysterious than the native speech. Great stress was laid upon the proper pronunciation of these names. Misprounciation was accountable for failure in all cases. The Book of the Dead contains many such "words of power." These were intended to assist the dead in their journey in the underworld of Amenti.

People believed that all supernatural beings, good and evil, possessed a hidden name. If a person knew the name he could compel that being to do his will. The name was as much a part of the man as his body or soul. The traveler through Amenti not only had to tell the divine gods their names. They also had to prove that he knew the names of a number of the supposedly inanimate objects in the dreary underworld.

Many books of magic in Egypt contained spells and other formulas for exorcism and necromantic practice. The priestly caste who compiled those necromantic works was known as Kerheb, or "scribes of the divine writings" Even the sons of pharaohs did not disdain to enter their ranks.

The Ritual of Egyptian Magic

The ritual of Egyptian magic possessed many strong similarities to the ceremonial practices of other systems and countries. Wax figures were used to represent the bodies of persons to be bewitched or harmed. Models of all kinds indicated the belief that the physical force directed against them might injure the person or animal they represented.

But the principal rite in which ceremonial magic was employed was the very elaborate one of mummification. As each bandage was laid in its exact position, certain words of power were uttered that were supposed to help preserve the part swathed. After evisceration, the priest uttered an invocation to the deceased and then took a vase of liquid containing ten perfumes. He smeared the perfumed liquid twice over the body, head to foot, taking special care to anoint the head thoroughly. The internal organs were then placed on the body, and the backbone immersed in holy oil, supposed to be an emanation from the gods Shu and Seb. Certain precious stones were then laid on the mummy, each of which with magical significance. Crystal, for instance, lightened his face; and cornelian strengthened his steps.

A priest who personified the jackal-headed god Anubis then advanced, performed certain symbolic ceremonies on the head of the mummy, and laid certain bandages upon it. After a further anointing with oil the deceased was declared to have "received his head." The mummy's left hand was filled with 36 substances used in embalming, symbolic of the 36 forms of the god Osiris. The body was then rubbed with holy oil, the toes wrapped in linen, and after an appropriate address the ceremony was completed.

Dreams

The art of procuring dreams and their interpretation was widely practiced in Egypt. The Egyptian magician procured dreams for his clients by drawing magic pictures and reciting magic words. The following formulas for producing a dream are taken from British Museum Papyrus, no. 122, lines 64ff and 359ff: "To obtain a vision from the god Bes: Make a drawing of Bes, as shewn below, on your left hand, and envelope your hand in a strip of black cloth that has been consecrated to Isis and lie down to sleep without speaking a word, even in answer to a question. Wind the remainder of the cloth round your neck. The ink with which you write must be composed of the blood of a cow, the blood of a white dove, fresh frankincense, myrrh, black writing ink, cinnabar, mulberry juice, rain-water, and the juice of wormwood and vetch. With this write your petition before the setting sun, saying, 'Send the truthful seer out of the holy shrine, I beseech thee Lampsuer, Sumarta, Baribas, Dardalam, Iorlex: O Lord send the sacred deity Anuth, Anuth, Salbana, Chambré, Breith, now, now, quickly, quickly. Come in this very night.' "To procure dreams: Take a clean linen bag and write upon it the names given below. Fold it up and make it into a lamp-wick, and set it alight, pouring pure oil over it. The word to be written is this: "Armiuth, Lailamchouch, Arsenophrephren, Phtha, Archentechtha." Then in the evening, when you are going to bed, which you must do without touching food (or, pure from all defilement), do thus: Approach the lamp and repeat seven times the formula given below: then extinguish it and lie down to sleep. The formula is this: "Sachmu…epaema Ligotereench: the Aeon, the Thunderer, Thou that hast swallowed the snake and dost exhaust the moon, and dost raise up the orb of the sun in his season, Chthetho is the name; I require, O lords of the gods, Seth, Chreps, give me the information that I desire."

Medical Magic

Magic played a big part in Egyptian medicine. On this point, A. Wiedemann stated: "The Egyptians were not great physicians: their methods were purely empirical and their remedies of very doubtful value, but the riskiness of their practice arose chiefly from their utter inability to diagnose because of their ignorance of anatomy. That the popular respect for the human body was great we may gather from the fact that the Paraskhistai who opened the body for embalmment were persecuted and stoned as having committed a sinful although necessary deed. The prescribed operations in preparing a body for embalmment were never departed from, and taught but little anatomy, so that until Greek times the Egyptians had only the most imperfect and inaccurate ideas of the human organism. They understood nothing about most internal diseases, and especially nothing about diseases of the brain, never suspecting them to be the result of organic changes, but assuming them to be caused by demons who had entered into the sick. Under these circumstances medicines might be used to cause the disappearance of the symptoms, but the cure was the expulsion of the demon. Hence the Egyptian physician must also practise magic.

"According to late accounts, his functions were comparatively simple, for the human body had been divided into thirty-six parts, each presided over by a certain demon, and it sufficed to invoke the demon of the part affected in order to bring about its cure—a view of matters fundamentally Egyptian. In the Book of the Dead we find that different divinities were responsible for the well-being of the bodies of the blessed; thus Nu had charge of the hair, Râ of the face, Hathor of the eyes, Apuat of the ears, Anubis of the lips, while Thoth was guardian of all parts of the body together. This doctrine was subsequently applied to the living body, with the difference that for the great gods named in the Book of the Dead there were substituted as gods of healing the presiding deities of the thirty-six decani, the thirty-six divisions of the Egyptian zodiac, as we learn from the names given to them by Celsus and preserved by Origen. In earlier times it was not so easy to be determined which god was to be invoked, for the selection depended not only on the part affected but also on the illness and symptoms and remedies to be used, etc.

"Several Egyptian medical papyri which have come down to us contain formulas to be spoken against the demons of disease as well as prescriptions for the remedies to be used in specified cases of illness. In papyri of older date these conjurations are comparatively rare, but the further the art of medicine advanced, or rather, receded, the more numerous they became.

"It was not always enough to speak the formulas once; even their repeated recitation might not be successful, and in that case recourse must be had to other expedients: secret passes were made, various rites were performed, the formulas were written upon papyrus, which the sick person had to swallow, etc…. But amulets were in general found to be most efficacious, and the personal intervention of a god called up, if necessary, by prayers or sorcery."

Magic Figures

As already confirmed, the Egyptians believed that it was possible to transmit to the image of any person or animal the soul of the being that it represented. The Westcar Papyrus related how a soldier who had fallen in love with a governor's wife was swallowed by a crocodile when bathing, the saurian being a magical replica of a waxen one made by the lady's husband. In the official account of a conspiracy against Rameses III (1200B.C.E.) the conspirators obtained access to a magical papyrus in the royal library and employed its instructions against the king with disastrous effects to themselves. Others made waxen figures of gods and of the king for the purpose of slaying the latter.

Astrology

The Egyptians were fatalists and believed that a man's destiny was decided before birth. The people therefore had re-course to astrologers. The well-known Egyptologist Sir E. A. Wallis Budge stated: "In magical papyri we are often told not to perform certain magical ceremonies on such and such days, the idea being that on these days hostile powers will make them to be powerless, and that gods mightier than those to which the petitioner would appeal will be in the ascendant. There have come down to us fortunately, papyri containing copies of the Egyptian calendar, in which each third of every day for three hundred and sixty days of the year is marked lucky or unlucky, and we know from other papyri why certain days were lucky or unlucky, and why others were only partly so."

In the life of Alexander the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes it is noted that the Egyptians were skilled in the art of casting horoscopes. Nectanebus had a tablet made of gold and silver and acacia wood, with three belts attached to it, just for that. Zeus was on the outer belt with the 36 decani surrounding him; representations of the 12 signs of the zodiac were on the second; and the third the sun and moon were on the third. He set the tablet on a tripod, and emptied out of a small box with models of the seven stars that were in the belts, and put eight precious stones into the middle belt. He arranged these in the places where he figured the depicted planets would be at the time of the birth of Olympias. He then told her fortune from them.

It should be noted that the use of the horoscope is much older than the time of Alexander the Great. A Greek horoscope in the British Museum is attached to "an introductory letter from some master of the art of astrology to his pupil, named Hermon, urging him to be very exact and careful in his application of the laws which the ancient Egyptians, with their laborious devotion to the art, had discovered and handed down to posterity."

Ghosts

The notion that the ka or double of man wandered about after death added to the Egyptian belief in ghosts. E. A. Wallis Budge observed as follows: "According to them a man consisted of a physical body, a shadow, a double, a soul, a heart, a spirit called the khu, a power, a name, and a spiritual body. When the body died the shadow departed from it, and could only be brought back to it by the performance of a mystical ceremony; the double lived in the tomb with the body, and was there visited by the soul whose habitation was in heaven. The soul was, from one aspect, a material thing, and like the ka, or double, was believed to partake of the funeral offerings which were brought to the tomb; one of the chief objects of sepulchral offerings of meat and drink was to keep the double in the tomb and to do away with the necessity of its wandering about outside the tomb in search of food. It is clear from many texts that, unless the double was supplied with sufficient food, it would wander from the tomb and eat any kind of offal and drink any kind of dirty water which it might find in its path. But besides the shadow, and the double, and the soul, the spirit of the deceased, which usually had its abode in heaven, was sometimes to be found in the tomb. There is, however, good reason for stating that the immortal part of man which lived in the tomb and had its special abode in the statue of the deceased was the 'double.' This is proved by the fact that a special part of the tomb was reserved for the ka, or double, which was called the 'house of the ka,' and that a priest, called the 'priest of the ka,' was specially appointed to minister the therein."

Esoteric Knowledge of the Priesthood

The esoteric knowledge of the Egyptian priesthood is believed to have been similar to the one for which the Indian medicine man is credited, with the addition of a philosophy close to that of ancient India. W. H. Davenport Adams observed as follows: "To impose upon the common people, the priesthood professed to lead lives of peculiar sanctity. They despised the outer senses, as sources of evil and temptation. They kept themselves apart from the profanium vulgus, and, says Iamblicus, 'occupied themselves only with the knowledge of God, of themselves, and of wisdom; they desired no vain honours in their sacred practice, and never yielded to the influence of the imagination.' Therefore they formed a world within a world, fenced round by a singular awe and wonder, apparently abstracted from the things of earth, and devoted to the constant contemplation of divine mysteries. They admitted few strangers into their order, and wrapt up their doctrines in a hieroglyphical language, which was only intelligible to the initiated. To these various precautions was added the solemnity of a terrible oath, whose breach was invariably punished with death.

"The Egyptian priests preserved the remaining relics of the former wisdom of nature. These were not imparted as the sciences are, in our age, but to all appearances they were neither learned nor taught; but as a reflection of the old revelations of nature, the perception must arise like an inspiration in the scholar's mind. From this cause appear to have arisen those numerous preparations and purifications the severity of which deterred many from initiation into the Egyptian priesthood; in fact, not infrequently resulted in the scholar's death. Long fasting, and the greatest abstinence, appear to have been particularly necessary: besides this, the body was rendered insensible through great exertions, and even through voluntary inflicted pain, and therefore open to the influence of the mind. The imagination was excited by representations of the mysteries; and the inner sense was more impressed by the whole than—as is the case with us—instructed by an explanation of simple facts. In this manner the dead body of science was not given over to the initiated, and left to chance whether it would become animated or not, but the living soul of wisdom was breathed into them.

"From this fact, that the contents of the mysteries were rather revealed than taught—were received more from inward inspiration and mental intoxication, than outwardly through endless teaching, it was necessary to conceal them from the mass of the people."

Commenting on the same subject the egyptologist W. Schu-bart stated: "The way to every innovation was closed, and outward knowledge and science could certainly not rise to a high degree of external perfection…They imparted their secret and divine sciences to no one who did not belong to their caste, and it was long impossible for foreigners to learn anything; it was only in later times that a few strangers were permitted to enter the initiation after many severe preparations and trials. Besides this, their functions were hereditary, and the son followed the footsteps of his father…for to the uninitiated the entrance was forbidden, and the initiated kept their vows."

Modern Views of Egyptian Magic

Beginning in the nineteenth century, scholarship removed much of the mystery surrounding ancient Egyptian magic. It also made magic an object of increasing occult and magic exploration. Modern work on Egypt really began in 1822, after J. F. Champollion (1790-1832) successfully deciphered the hieroglyphics through his work on the Rosetta Stone, opening the way to understanding ancient Egyptian inscriptions on monuments and papyrus. Champollion's basic work was supplemented by other philologists including, Richard Lepsius (1810-1884), Heinrich Brugsch (1827-1894), and Adolf Erman (1854-1916). Other renowned egyptologists included Sir Gaston Maspero (1846-1916), Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934), J. H. Breasted (1865-1935), and Sir William Flinder Petrie (1853-1942). Popular interest in ancient Egypt rose with the discovery and excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun (d. ca. 1352 B.C.E.) by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter. (See also Tutankhamun Curse)

Modern Egyptian magical practice was largely initiated by Aleister Crowley who in 1904 in Cairo received a supposedly channeled book, The Book of the Law. He later proclaimed its reception as the beginning of a new era, the Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child. Since that time, ritual magicians have been poring over the Western translations of Egyptian texts to ferret out their modern implications. The Church of Eternal Source, headquartered in Burbank, California, is one prominent revivalist Egyptian magic religion, founded in the 1960s. The Rosicrucian Society has constructed an elaborate museum, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, in San Jose, California, also building on the ongiong fascination with the aura and magic of ancient Egypt. The elaborate museum and gardens also embodies sections that display ancient writing tablets from Babylonia and Assyria.

Much speculation has also revolved around the Great Pyramid of Giza (built in the reign of Cheops of the Fourth Dynasty). Ever since Col. Howard Vyse forced an entry into the pyramid and took measurements, an eccentric school of pyramidology focused upon speculation concerning pyramids in general, and Egyptian pyramids in particular has grown up. It drew the most interest in its association of various pyramid measurements with biblical prophecies (see pyramids and pyramidology). Other writers, most recently the devotees of the ancient astronauts hypothesis, have attempted to perpetuate the myth that the remarkable engineering achievements of pyramid building were the product of a long-lost occult secret (or ancient science) by which great blocks of stone could be levitated into position by the magical power of sound vibration. Such romantic speculations can be made only by ignoring archaeological and hieroglyphical evidence. The restoration work being completed on the Great Pyramids at the end of the 1990s continued to spark the interest of people all over the world. Tourism was hampered somewhat with threats of terrorism on foreign, particularly American, visitors.

Modern day Egypt continues to reveal an interest in the mystical. On April 2, 1968, two Moslem workers thought they saw a nun in white standing near the dome of St. Mary's Church of Zeitoun, one of Cairo's poorer districts. The church was a Coptic rite (a Middle Eastern rite of Roman Catholicism) testimony to the Christian converts in the midst of the Moslem country. The apparitions continued throughout April and May of that year, the brilliant figure radiating out of light over the dome of the church, as well as being visible in front of the church, walking on the roof and saluting the workers—often offering the sign of blessings on them. The apparitions declined to only a dozen in 1969, a few less in 1970, and disappearing altogether by 1971. These appearances were witnessed by thousands of people, both Christian and Moslem. The phenomenon was even photographed. According to Arthur and Joyce Berger in their 1991 Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research, "The spectacular event is of enormous interest to parapsychology as an evidential case. There is ample reason to think that the apparition was seen by people numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The impressive photographs taken of the figure suggest an authentic phenomenon." The story of St. Mary's Church indicated that was built in 1925 due to a dream in which Mary appeared and requested it. In another dream she reportedly had promised to return to the church. While Catholics believe it to be "simply" a miracle, some noted parapsychologists offered another explanation. They thought that perhaps the appearances were thought-forms physically objectified by crowds who knew her promise. That it happened, too, in light of Joseph and Mary fleeing with the infant Jesus away from the slaughter ordered by King Herod, right to the same place, adds further to the idea that the energy of the people actually created the phenomenon. The theory continues to be investigated.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Breasted, James. A History of Egypt: From the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. New York: Charles S. Scribner's Sons, 1919.

Brunton, Paul. A Search in Secret Egypt. London, 1935. Re-print, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970.

Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Book of the Dead. London, 1898. Re-print, New York: Dover, 1967. Reprint, New York: Causeway, 1974.

——. Egyptian Magic. London, 1899.

——. The Gods of the Egyptians. 2 vols. London, 1898.

——. A History of Egypt. 8 vols. London, 1902. 4 vols. Re-print, The Netherlands: Anthropological Publications.

——. The Mummy. London, 1925.

de Camp, Sprague. The Ancient Engineers. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1960. Reprint, New York: Ballantine, 1974.

Erman, Adolf. Life in Ancient Egypt. London, 1894. Reprint, New York: Dover, 1971.

Ghalioungui, Paul. The House of Life: Magic and Medical Sciences in Ancient Egypt. Rev. ed., New York: Wittenborn, 1975.

Hornung, Erik. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Knight, Alfred E. Amentet: An Account of the Gods, Amulets and Scarabs of the Ancient Egyptians. London: Longmans, Green, 1915.

Massey, Gerald. Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World. 2 vols. London, 1907. Reprint, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974.

Rosicrucian Society. Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, 2000. http://www.rosicrucian.org/. June 26, 2000.

Seiss, Joseph. The Great Pyramid: A Miracle in Stone. Blauvelt, N.Y.: Multimedia (Steiner Books), 1972.

Spence, Lewis. Mysteries of Egypt. London, 1929. Reprint, Baluvelt, N.Y.: Multimedia (Steiner Books), 1972.

Tompkins, Peter. Secrets of the Great Pyramid. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

An ancient empire in Africa that was centered on the Nile River. Ruled by a pharaoh, Egypt figures prominently in many events in the Bible, including the stories of Joseph and his brothers and of Moses and the Exodus. (See under “World Geography.”)

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