Egypt Country Info - Africa

Description and Basic Information

Egypt with its capital Cairo is located in Africa (Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea). It covers some 1,001,451 square kilometres (slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico) with 81,713,000 citizens. Arabic, English and French are the official languages spoken in Egypt (consider regional differences). Libya, Sudan and Israel are bordering countries.

Egypt is in north-eastern Africa. Egypt is perhaps best known as the home of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with its temples, hieroglyphs, mummies, and pyramids. It is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations world-wide. Tourist attractions include Roman and Greek monuments, Bibliotheca Alexandria, Qa'edbay's Castle, and Qasr El Montaza (El Montaza Palace). Egypt can be a fantastic place to sample a unique range of food: not too spicy and well-flavoured with herbs. There is a full range of accommodation options, from basic backpacker hostels to five-star resorts. Egypt is a predominanty Muslim nation and alcoholic drinks are religiously forbidden (haram) - though not legally. Egypt is generally a safe and friendly country to travel. Egyptians on the whole are very friendly - if you are in need of assistance they will generally try to help you as much as they are able. Pickpocketing is a problem in Egypt's bigger cities, particularly Cairo. Many locals opt not to carry wallets at all, instead keeping their money in a clip in their pocket. Egypt is largely a desert, an extension of the great Sahara that bands North Africa. Save for the thin strip of watered land along the Nile River, very little could survive here.

Pictures from Capital (Cairo)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Egypt

The topography features vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta. The average density of population is about 81 per km². The climate in Egypt can be described as desert with hot, dry summers with moderate winters. Potential natural disasters are periodic droughts or frequent earthquakes, flash floods, landslides, hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring, dust storms or sandstorms.

To reach someone in Egypt dial +20 prior to a number. There are 10,313,000 installed telephones. And there are 55,352,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".eg". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 220V - 50Hz. The following list are the 30 regions/states in Egypt we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Egyptian population grew at a rate of 2% (or by 1,606,219 citizens). With 390,289 deaths and 2,013,406 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 2.02%. -16,899 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Egypt: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.