Why does Egypt geographically belong to Africa but historically and culturally belong to Asia?

Answer 1

The question may be asking one of two things and therefore leads to two separate answers:

1) What cultural traditions and historical events show that Egypt belongs to Asia in that way? -- Egypt has had much more history interacting with the Levant and Mesopotamia than with the rest of Africa. There was an immense amount of trade and commerce that centered around the Mediterranean. All of the major world empires included Egypt, even though the majority of their territory was non-African such as the Persian Empire, the Macedonian Empire, Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire. Egypt's Arab identity, both physically and culturally links it much more strongly to Asia than to Africa. Its cuisine as well has many more influences from Asia than from Africa.

2) What caused Egypt to have the Asian cultural traditions and historical events instead of having African ones? -- The Sahara Desert was an incredibly strong bulwark to keep Egypt separate from the Sub-Saharan African culture. Since trade over the Mediterranean was much easier and simpler and the passage over the Sinai Desert was much more direct and hospitable, trade and relations with Southwest Asia occurred much more naturally.