The misterious culture Egypt The misterious culture

. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been for centuries a centre of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Prizes in Africa and the Arab World. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify in art. The wall paintings followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Welcome to Cairo

Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in the world, and the second most populous country in Africa (after Nigeria). The vast majority of its 76.5 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or 15,450 sq miles) where the only arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land form part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. Around half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo (the largest city in the Arab World, Africa, and the Middle East), Alexandria and other major towns in the Nile Delta Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most ancient and important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of Luxor contains a particularly large number of ancient artefacts such as the Karnack Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural centre of the Middle East.

Coming back to the history The Nile Valley has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Palaeolithic era. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artefacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the desert oases. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appear during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa

economy Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe.

religion Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives, as visitors to the country quickly discover. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. Holidays in Egypt have many classifications. There are a set of national holidays celebrated by the entire population. Since Islam is the state religion, the Islamic holidays are observed by all Egyptians. Christian holidays are not national holidays (except eastern Christmas), however the Christian population are permitted to observe these holidays.

What is Egypt for you? Most people who think of Egypt think of antiquities, but Egypt offers much more. Certainly it is a prime location to see our great heritage from the ancient world, including Pyramids and wonderful temples, but it is also part of the Holy Land, and tours to Christian and other religious monuments are popular. Yet Egypt also offers nature and desert treks, great scuba diving and even golf, fishing and birding expeditions. One may choose to relax on the wondrous Egypt Red Sea or Sinai coasts, take in the high culture of Cairo, or even leisurely float down the Egyptian Nile on a luxurious river boat.