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Egypt officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is atranscontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa andsouthwest corner of Asia, via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is the world's only contiguous Eurafrasian nation. Most of Egypt's territory of 1,010,408 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) lies within the Nile Valley. Visit Egypt

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Egypt is a Mediterranean country. It is bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

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Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, arising in the tenth millennium BC as one of the world's first nation states. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government in history. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis,Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest worldwide.

Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, having endured and at times assimilated various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and European. Although Christianised during the Common Era, it was subsequently Islamised due to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century.
With over 90 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country inNorth Africa and the Arab World, the third-most populous in Africa (afterNigeria and Ethiopia), and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, theMiddle East and the Muslim world. Its economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and services at almost equal production levels. In 2011, longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid mass protests. Later elections saw the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted by the army a year later amid mass protests.
The English name Egypt is derived from the Ancient Greek Aígyptos , via Middle French Egypte and LatinAegyptus. It is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigýpti-, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, and from there into Arabic as qub?i, back formed into ??? qub?, whence English Copt. The Greek forms were borrowed from Late Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name

meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah atMemphis. Strabo attributed the word to a folk etymology in which Aígyptos  evolved as a compound fromAigaiou huptios , meaning "below the Aegean".
Mi?r is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while Ma?r is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew  (Mitzráyim). The oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian mi-i?-ru mi?ru, related to mi?ru/mi?irru/mi?aru, meaning "border" or "frontier".
The ancient Egyptian name of the country was km.t, which means black ground or black soil, referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the deshret , or "red land" of the desert.

This name is commonly vocalised as Kemet, but was probably pronounced  in ancient Egyptian. The name is realised askeme and kem? in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as  (Khemía). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw  "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew  "northland", respectively.

Egypt signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity on 9 June 1992, and became a party to the convention on 2 June 1994. It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which was received by the convention on 31 July 1998. Where many CBD National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans neglect biological kingdoms apart from animals and plants, Egypt's plan was unusual in providing balanced information about all forms of life.
The plan stated that the following numbers of species of different groups had been recorded from Egypt: algae (1483 species), animals (about 15,000 species of which more than 10,000 were insects), fungi (more than 627 species), monera (319 species), plants (2426 species), protozoans (371 species). For some major groups, for example lichen-forming fungi and nematode worms, the number was not known. Apart from small and well-studied groups like amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles, the many of those numbers are likely to increase as further species are recorded from Egypt. For the fungi, including lichen-forming species, for example, subsequent work has shown that over 2200 species have been recorded from Egypt, and the final figure of all fungi actually occurring in the country is expected to be much higher.
The official language of the Republic is Modern Standard Arabic. Arabic was adopted by the Egyptians after the Arab invasion of Egypt. The spoken languages are: Egyptian Arabic (68%), Sa'idi Arabic (29%), Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic (1.6%), Sudanese Arabic (0.6%), Domari (0.3%), Nobiin (0.3%), Beja (0.1%), Siwi and others. Additionally, Greek,Armenian and Italian are the main languages of immigrants. In Alexandria in the 19th century there was a large community ofItalian Egyptians and Italian was the "lingua franca" of the city. Visit Egypt
The main foreign languages taught in schools, by order of popularity, are English, French, German and Italian. Visit Egypt
Historical Egyptian languages, also known as Copto-Egyptian, consist of ancient Egyptian and Coptic, and form a separate branch among the family of Afroasiatic languages. The "Koiné" dialect of the Greek language, though not native to Egypt, was important in Hellenistic Alexandria. It was used extensively in the philosophy and science of that culture. Later translations from Greek to Arabic became the subject of study by Arab scholars. Visit Egypt

Egyptian cuisine is notably conducive to vegetarian diets, as it relies heavily on vegetable dishes. Though food in Alexandria and the coast of Egypt tends to use a great deal of fish and other seafood, for the most part Egyptian cuisine is based on foods that grow out of the ground. Meat has been very expensive for most Egyptians throughout history, so a great number of vegetarian dishes have been developed. Visit Egypt
Some consider koshari (a mixture of rice, lentils, and macaroni) to be the national dish. Fried onions can be also added to koshari. In addition, ful medames (mashed fava beans) is one of the most popular dishes. Fava bean is also used in making falafel (also known as "ta'meyya"), which may have originated in Egypt and spread to other parts of the Middle East. Garlic fried with coriander is added to mulukhiyya, a popular green soup made from finely chopped jute leaves, sometimes with chicken or rabbit. Visit Egypt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia