Here are 5 FOCUS QUESTIONS, along with their answers, which compare Egypt with Pennsylvania.

1. How long is the Nile River ?
 [4160 miles--It's the longest river in world]  The Nile flows from central Africa, north through about 10 countries to the Mediterranean Sea.  A bit north of Cairo, it fans out to form the Nile Delta, which is a very fertile area for farming.

2. How long is the Mississippi River?
 [2350 miles (third in world, which includes the Missouri River)
 (The Amazon River, at about 3,900 miles, is the second-longest in the world, in case you were wondering...)

3. How many people live in Philadelphia?
 [Philadelphia county 1.5 million--Greater Philly area about 3.7 million]

4. How about the state of Pennsylvania?  [About 12.3 million people live in PA.]

5. How many people live in Cairo, the capital of Egypt?
 [over 15 million (includes Giza--Greater Cairo area]  Some estimates put the population of Cairo at closer to 20 million.   So....more people live in Cairo than in the entire state of Pennsylvania.  Cairo is the largest city not only in the Arab world
but in all of Africa.   It has about twice as many people as New York City.

When I was looking up some of these figures I found different answers depending on where I looked, so it's okay if you also found different answers.

For thousands of years it has been said that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile."  In fact, because there is little rain in Egypt, most of Egypt is desert, and if it were not for the Nile running through it, almost all of it would be desert.  In some places the desert descends almost to the edge of the river itself.  There are a few oases in the Western Desert, but most of Egypt's population of about 67 million people lives along the Nile.   Egypt is the most populous Arab nation by far.  Because most of the population lives in the Nile Valley, the population density is very high, much higher than in Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania is about 45,300 square miles in area;  Egypt is about 386,600 square miles, so Egypt is about 8.5 times bigger the state of Pennsylvania.

Cairo is the capital of Egypt.  In Arabic, Cairo is called "al-Qaahirah", which means "The Victorious City."  Giza, where the Sphinx and Pyramids are, is located on the western bank of the Nile across from Cairo, connected by many bridges.  Although they have different mayors, they essentially form one huge city.   In Arabic, the Pyramids are called "al-Ahraam" or "al-Haram,"  while the Arabic name for the Sphinx is "Abuu al-Hawl," meaning  "The Father of Terror!"  The Great Pyramid of Khufu (also called Cheops) dates from about 2600 B. C.  One of Khufu's successors, Khafre, built the second pyramid and it is believed that his face is carved on the Sphinx.

Falucca boats on the Nile River in Aswan

Other important cities in Egypt are Alexandria, which was founded by Alexander the Great, Port Said, Suez, Asyut, Luxor and Aswan.  The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas and is a very important international waterway.  In Luxor and Aswan there are many famous ruins of Pharaonic temples and tombs, such as the Temple of Amon at Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and Philae Island.  The temples of Abu Simbel, south of Aswan, sit on the shore of Lake Nasser.  Lake Nasser, a huge lake which spans the border of Egypt and Sudan, was created when the Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970.  The dam produces much of Egypt's electricity and ended the yearly flood of the Nile, bringing stability to Egypt's water supply.  But  the creation of Lake Nasser flooded much of Nubia, covering archeological sites and forcing the relocation of the people who lived in that area.  The huge temples of Abu Simbel were actually cut up and moved and reassembled on higher ground to prevent them from being flooded.

Tourism and agriculture are Egypt's main industries.  Egyptian cotton is famous for its high quality.  Did you know that we get the English word cotton from the Arabic word "qutn"?  They also grow lots of sugar cane in Egypt and make sugar from it.  Egypt has oil, but most of it is produced for its own use.

The name Egypt comes from "Copt," the name of the Orthodox Coptic Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia.  About one-eighth of Egypt's population are Coptic Christians.  Coptic Christianity is one of the oldest forms of Christianity, and Egyptian Copts trace the founding of their church to St. Mark the Evangelist.   They have their own calendar which dates to the foundation of their church, and we are now in the Coptic year of 1717.  Copts have their own Pope, whose seat is in Cairo.  The Coptic language is descended from the language of the ancient Egyptians, and although people used to speak it at home, it is now used only in religious ceremonies.

Sunset behind the Pyramids

The history of Egypt is very long indeed:  Here is a very brief summary:

Ancient Egyptian history is divided into 3 main eras: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. The Egyptian dynasties are given Roman numerals by scholars, from I through XXX.  The kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were united in about 3100 BCE by Menes, the King of Upper Egypt, and he founded the first Egyptian dynasty.  The ancient Egyptians believed that their king, called the Pharoah, was a god.  The Old Kingdom began in the III dynasty, around 2700 BCE.  The capital of the Old Kingdom was at Memphis, a bit south of present-day Cairo.  The Sphinx, the Pyramids at Giza, and the step Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara are the most famous Old Kingdom monuments.  The Old Kingdom lasted about 500 years.

The Middle Kingdom arose in approximately 2050 BCE, and its capital was established at Thebes, which is now the city of Luxor.  Egyptian culture flourished during this period, and Egypt extended its borders in all directions.  The Temple of Amon at Karnak was begun in this era.  But it lasted fewer than 300 years, after which the Hyksos people, from the area which is now Syria, conquered Egypt.  They ruled for nearly 200 years, adopting the Egyptian culture and founding their own dynasties.

The New Kingdom began about 1570 BCE when the Hyksos were defeated.  New Kingdom Pharoahs again conquered their neighbors, including Syria and Nubia.  Among the most famous Pharoahs of this 500 year period are Amenhotep I, Tutankhamen, and Ikhnaton (Akhenaton) Queen Hatsheput and Ramses II.  The tombs in the Valley of the Kings are from the New Kingdom, as are the temples at Abu Simbel.  In about 1100 BCE the New Kingdom fell apart completely, and over the next 600 years Egypt was conquered by the Libyans, the Nubians (Kushites,) the Assyrians and the Persians.

You can learn much more about Ancient Egypt and see the artifacts in the collection by visiting the University of Pennsylvania Museum's website at:  http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Exhibits/egyptintro.html

Egyptians overthrew the Persians in about 400 BCE, but in 332 Alexander the Great from Greece conquered Egypt.   He founded the city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea, and it became the new capital.  After his death, his general Ptolemy took control of Egypt and founded the Greek-Egyptian dynasty of that name.  Under the Ptolemies, Egypt flourished as a center of Greek culture.  Queen Cleopatra was one of the last Ptolemies, and she tried to prevent the Romans from taking Egypt, but eventually they were conquered by the Romans.  Her son, the last Ptolemy, was executed by the Romans in 30 BCE, after which Egypt became another province of the great Roman Empire.

The Romans exploited their new colony and most of the native Egyptians were unhappy being ruled by them.  Many abandoned the ancient Egyptian beliefs and converted to the new religion of Christianity, which angered the pagan Romans.  These Egyptian Christians became known as the Copts.  Eventually the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire--but it was a different form of Christianity than that of the Copts, and so the Romans continued to persecute the Copts.  The Romans were finally defeated when the Persians invaded in 616 AD, but they ruled Egypt for only 12 years.  Egypt was quickly conquered by the Arab Muslim armies in only 3 years 639-42.  Although the Arabs brought Islam to Egypt, most Egyptians remained Christian for several centuries.  The Arabs established their capital at Fustat, located where Cairo is now.

Egypt was ruled by several governors during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras of Islamic history.  Many of these governors established their own ruling dynasties.  In 969 the Fatamids invaded Egypt from North Africa and founded Cairo.  Under the Fatimid Sultan al-Hakim, the original city of Fustat was destroyed by fire.  The famous ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) fought the Crusaders and established his family dynasty the Ayyubids.  He constructed the Citadel in Cairo.  From 1250 to 1517, Egypt was ruled by the Mamlukes, who were originally military slaves.  The famous Mamluke Sultan Baybars defeated the Mongol invaders in Syria.  Egypt thrived under the Mamlukes, and many of the famous Islamic buildings of Cairo date from this period.

The Mamlukes were defeated by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, and Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire.  Although Egypt was ruled by Ottoman governors, the Mamlukes remained the ruling class.  In 1798, the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Egypt, but was forced out 3 years later by the combined Ottoman and British forces. Muhammad Ali, an Albanian officer in the Ottoman Army, took control of Egypt in 1805.  In the name of the Ottomans, he slaughtered the Mamlukes and began to expand Egyptian power.  He tried to westernize Egypt by reforming the army, agricultural and educational systems.  He began his own dynasty which ruled Egypt until 1952.  His successors, however, were not good rulers, and the country went bankrupt.  In 1882, the British more or less took over the country.  The Egyptian ruler had to do what the British wanted.  Egyptians began to hate the British as foreign occupiers.

Egyptian nationalism and anti-British feeling grew stronger and stronger, leading to the revolution of 1952, when King Farouk was forced into exile by the army.  Gamal Abdel Nasir (Nasser) became the president of Egypt in 1953.  Egypt fought wars with Israel in 1956 and 1967.  Abdel Nasir died in 1970 and Anwar Sadat became president.  Another Arab-Israeli war happened in 1973, but in 1977 Sadat made a historic trip to Israel.  In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David peace treaty, and Israel returned to Egypt the Sinai Peninsula, which it had captured in 1967.   Other Arab countries shunned Egypt because it had made peace with Israel without them.  President Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and his Vice-President Hosni Mubarak became president.  He has now governed Egypt for 20 years.

The African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania has a lot of information about Egypt as well as links to many other websites about Egypt:   http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Egypt.html

For much more about Egypt, visit:  http://www.arab.net/egypt/egypt_contents.html

For information about tourism in Egypt and much more, visit:  http://touregypt.net/