What associations do you have when you think about Egypt? - the cradle of one of the ancient and greatest civilizations that influenced the development of the world culture, a magic country where each stone keeps the memory of the past centuries in it – the times of the pharaohs, the magnificent pyramids, mystical Sphinx, magnificent and cruel gods, gorgeous queens and Coptic Christians. The country where there is no winter, the country collected out of pieces of Africa and Asia.
Historical monuments and exotic nature of Egypt favour the tourist business. The incredible combination of desert rocky mountains of unbelievable beauty, endless deserts with their amazing sunsets, green palm trees oasis, the great flows of the Nile, the astonishing beaches by the blue waters of the Red and Mediterranean seas attract tons of travelers to Egypt, that get charmed by this incredible and ancient country.
You can use more and more bright and positive epithets to describe this place as it combines so many interests and temptations. We offer you a little on-line excursion through Egypt, a bit about the most interesting and important.
Geography
Egypt is a big Arabic country situated in the North-East of Africa. The area is 1 002 000 squared kilometers. Population: 67 886 000 (as for 2001). The capital is Cairo.
From the north Egypt is washed by the Mediterranean sea, from the South it shares the boarder with Sudan, from the west with Libya, from the east the boarder goes along the coastline of the Red Sea and along the land with Israel. The Nile separates the country into two unequal parts, at the same time the Suez channel separates the Sinai peninsular from Egypt. Within the valley of Nile and its delta the fertile land lies on which 90% of the population is concentrated. The rest is mainly the desert without any greenery except for some oasis. The coastline to the South from the Suez channel has beautiful shores and coral reefs that attract divers. The high dam in Aswan now controls the annual floods, that before used to flood the most part of the Nile valley. Also this dam provides the power supply to the region.
Time: according Greenwich Mean Time is + 2 ( from May to September +3) .
The climate in Egypt is hot and continent dry. A small part in the north coast lies in the Mediterranean climate zone. The hot period of the year is from July to October, the cold one is from December to March. The coldest months are January and February. Sometimes in winter there are strong cold winds. An essential fall of temperature in the night is normal for the desert. However there is always a light wind in the Red sea what lowers the temperature making even a 40 degrees heat easy to survive.
The history of Egypt
The exceptional fertility of the land is conditioned by the annual flood of the Nile, together with the isolation provided by the deserts in the west and east, have guaranteed a successful development of one of the major world civilizations. The history of the civilization in Egypt counts more than 5 millenniums. The united kingdom was formed approximately in the year 3000 before Christ, when the lands of Egypt where united by the Pharaoh Mines, since then starts the Early kingdom with the capital in the upper Egypt city Tis. During the following 3 millenniums a whole chain of pharaohs’ dynasties reigned Egypt.
The power from the last native dynasty came over to the Persians in year 342 B.C. after what they where replaced by Greeks, Romans (the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.) and finally to the Byzantine. The last were the Arabs, who brought Islam and the Arabic language in the 7-th century and reined Egypt during the next 6 centuries. In 1250 the military caste of Mameluke came to power. And from 1517 till 1914 Egypt was occupied and ruled by the Ottoman Turkish deputies – pashas. In 1576 the direct Ottoman administration was established in Upper Egypt. Before that the most part of Upper Egypt was actually under the control of Bedouin sheikhs.
From 1798 till 1799 Egypt survived the invasion of the French army under the commandment of Napoleon.
As a result the building of the Suez channel was finished in 1869 and Egypt became an important world transportation center. They say that for protection of the investments Great Britain took under control the government of Egypt in 1882, formally Egypt remained under the authority of the Ottoman Empire till 1914.
From 1914 till 1922 Egypt existed under the protectorate of Great Britain. Partial independence from Great Britain Egypt gained in 1922 when king Faud came to reign, and complete sovereignty after the Second World War.
From then on the Egyptian history was a lot effected by the Arab-Israeli conflict and the process of decolonization in the world. In 1952 the organization of liberal militaries “Free officer” headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the king, the next year the country became a republic. The first president was general Nagib. The foreign policy took the direction protecting the interests of the Arab nation and demanded to withdraw the English army from the Suez channel zone, defended the right of Palestinian Arab on their own government. Starting with the second half of the 50’s Nasser having not met a positive reaction from the side of the USA and Great Britain started to address the countries of Eastern Europe and USSR for financial and moral support.
In 1990’s the militant Islamic fundamentalists tried to stabilize Egypt through a series of acts of terror against the tourist industry and assassination of statesmen, but as a result of an effective campaign of the force ministries of the country by the end of the decade their activity was brought to zero. From 1980 up till now the country is under the act of the state of emergency that has been prolonged a couple of times for different periods.
Today Egypt is a dynamically developing country. The government of Egypt nowadays pays a lot of attention to the correspondence of the country’s economy to the tempo of the new century, to communication investments and tourism business.
The government of Egypt
The official name of the country is the Arabic Republic Egypt, an independent country since 1922 with Cairo as a capital.
In the political sense Egypt is a regional state, one of the leaders in the Arab world. On the position Egypt takes depends a lot: the position of power in the Middle East. As any eastern country Egypt is drawn towards strong power and super-centralized government. As for the constitutional form Egypt is a democratic, socialist country where the freedom of word and religion is guaranteed.
The head of the Republic is the president who since 1981 is Hosni Mubarak.
The legislative authority is the National Assembly. 448 deputies are chosen for a 5 year term, another 10 are appointed by the president. Also there should be at least 30 women in the party. The ruling party is the party under the chairmanship of Mubarak, called the National-democratic party.
All the central power is concentrated in Cairo. But the Constitution of 1971 that proclaimed Islam the national religion gave a lot of power to deputies and governors of the provinces. The country is divided into 25 administrative districts
The first national flag of Egypt was approved according to the King’s decree in 1923 after Egypt got it’s independency from Great Britain. The color of the flag was green with a white crescent , in 1958 a new flag was approved for the UAR that then included Syria and Egypt. The new flag was of 3 colors: red, white with two green stars in the middle and black. In 1972 the 2 stars were replaced by a golden hawk, in 1984 the hawk was replaced by a golden eagle. The red symbolizes the 1952 year when the country was ruled by the militaries, the white symbolizes the revolution in 1952 and the black means the end of Great Britain’s control over Egypt. .
Population of Egypt
In modern Egypt there the population is about 65 million people and every year the population becomes 1,3 million more. In Cairo now there are about 20 million people living. All the territory of the country is divided into Lower Egypt (Alexandria, Port Said, Cairo) and Upper Egypt (Luxor, Aswan, Kena)
In ethnical terms the population of contemporary Egypt is quite regular. The descendants of ancient Egyptians becoming Arabic are 99% of the population. The ethnic minority are: Nubian, Bedouin and some other nomadic tribes. The ethnic group of Copts is distinguished among them. They are different in their religion and other values, but in the rest – the same Egyptians. Their native language is Arabic. Except the Egyptian Arabs here Arabs from Sudan and the Arabian peninsular live, among which are couple of thousands people as well as Palestinian, Lebanese and others. In big cities in the delta of Nile a couple of thousands of Jewish and foreign people could be found (Greeks (about 100 000), English, Italian, French etc)
Religion
According to the general census of 1986 over 94% of the population is Islam; most of the rest are Christians. There are all types of Christianity presented here, especially the Coptic Christian Church. There is also a little Jewish community.
Traditions and customs
The Islam faith defines the rhythm of life of Egyptians. This is noticeable just with some indications: for example, five times a day the muezzin through a loudspeaker calls the faithful for the prayer. And during the Ramadan month the night becomes the day. Al the day the Muslims do not eat and have their meal only after the sunset. During this time the life stops, governmental offices work only from 10 to 14.00. Weekend days in Egypt are Friday and Saturday, and on Fridays for the day prayer usually all the offices and shops are closed.
Travelers of course will pay attention to the peculiarities of the national dresses of the Egyptians. They wear long loose dresses, men prefer white color, women black. Men wear both: European clothes like t-shirts, jeans, shorts and the national “galabee”. Women wear both: European clothes just adding the hijab (something close to a yashmark but not concealing the face) and traditional clothes that cover the whole body. After Islam coming the traditions from the Pharaohs times were actually forgotten, except may be for the belly-dance. .
The fundamentals of the legislation in Egypt are formed by the restatements of the Muslim law – Shariah that however acts in an eased way. This way in Egypt they refused from strict punishments like chopping off the hands for robbery. There are attempts to make Shariah closer to contemporary legislation.
Egypt is a very hospitable country. Guests are always met with an open heart, however, going out in to the city, remember, that Egypt is a Muslim counter and here the traditions are puritanical. Devoted Muslims do not drink alcohol, but usually do not mind when others do. It is not used to photograph locals without their permission and to criticize Islam.
Language in Egypt
The Egyptian dialect of Arabic language is spoken in the country. Arabs write and read from right to left. The literary Arabic language is unified, however, spoken language in Egypt differs from the neighbor Arabic countries language and from classical Arabic, separate dialects are in Cairo, Upper and Lower Egypt.
With most of the Egyptians in cities you can without problems express yourself in English. A lot of people know French. The staff in the hotels usually speaks as well Italian of German or Russian
Currency
The Currency in Egypt is the Egyptian pound (LE). Denominations: 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 the small coin is the piaster (РТ). 1 LE = 100 piaster. There are coins and paper money equal to 25 and 50 piaster. The import of foreign currency is unlimited in case you show a declaration.
Credit cards and travel cheques are widely used in big tourist centers, banking machines are everywhere. Using electronic types of payment in the province is difficult.
Be careful! Exchange the currency into Egyptian pounds in little amounts because you might not have the chance to change it back.
Banks work usually from 10 to 14.00 and from 18.00 till 21.00, weekends are Fridays and Saturdays. In each big hotel you usually can find a bank department.
Passport and visa
The visa upon the arrival in the airport costs 15$ and is valid for 30 days.
To get the visa your passport should be valid for at least 6 months. For children under 14 endorsed into the parent’s passports a separate visa is not issued, they go within the visa of their parents.
Documents you need to have: passport, tourist voucher, insurance policy, flight ticket, if required the attorney letter for the child and the child’s birth certificate, a certificate from the bank (if you are entering with more than 3000$ per person)
What you are to do in the airport
You land and the bus takes you to the airport building. After you enter meet your meeting tour operator near the tour operators stand, the representative will help you to fill in all the documents. In case you are traveling on your own, not using any tour operator services, by your arrival come up to the registration desks and ask the emigration card (a small piece of pink paper). Fill it in. Take the queue for the visa. After you bought the visa for 15$ you glue it in you passport. Queue for the customs, there you show your passport with the visa and the emigration card, they will put a stamp in your passport and you pass to the hall where you will get your luggage. If you need a trolley for the luggage keep in mind that it costs round 3$. After, if you are traveling with a tour you get onto the bus that takes you to the hotel. If you are traveling on your own, you will need to find a transfer to the place you want to go. To do this is not complicated, near the exit from the airport there are usually a lot of taxi drivers that on their own will offer you to take their service.
Upon departure you will be brought back to the airport, there proceed to the desk of your flight to turn in the luggage and get the boarding pass. Often the flights are delayed, so in advance better find out if your flight is on time.
Communication
Telephone: the country code is 20, to get on the international line – 00.
Mobile phones: GSM 900. The working area is limited with Cairo and Alexandria and the north coastline of the Red sea to the Suez Channel till Dahab and the main cities along the Nile.
Main mobile operators: ECMS-MobiNil (www.mobinil.com) and Vodafone (http://www.vodafone.com.eg).
Fax: in some main hotels in Cairo there are faxes, check the hotel administration
Telegrams: international services are available in the central postal offices in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and the main hotels.
Internet: there are internet cafes in the main cities including Cairo, Alexandra, Dahab, Sharm, Luxor etc. Tourists may also get access to internet in their hotels. The main internet providers are internet Egypt, EUN, Rite and Ritesec.
Post: there is the international postal net working. Air mail takes about 5 days to Western Europe and about 10 days to the USA. There is a service “till called for” in the central post office, when the mail is collected you will have to pay a little fee. All the postal offices work daily from 8.30 till 15.00 except for Fridays. The central postal office in Cairo works 24 hours a day.
Television: almost all the main tourist cities in Egypt have satellite television.
Radio: there are BBC World Service and "the voice of America" available. You can find their schedule and details in the Internet.
Sightseeing
In Egypt there are millions of places to see.
Cairo with it’s Midan Hussein square, Saidna-Al-Hussein and Al-Azhar mosques, the famous Khan-El-Khalili market, museum of Islam art, the City of the Dead (the Northern cemetery), Egyptian Ancient museum, lots of Coptic churches, the monastery of St. George, St. Barbara and St. Sergey. Out of the city you will find lots of gravestones and pyramids – the Memphis ruins (the capital of the Ancient kingdom), necropolis Sakkara with the stepped pyramids even more ancient that the pyramids of Giza, well preserved bas-reliefs and royal burrier places. Dakhshur has been open for tourists just in 1996, it is famous for its pyramid Snofru and a huge royal cemetery.
The Pyramids of Giza. One of the worlds seven wonders that are the only preserved. The famous Sphinx with the lions body and the head of a human. Every evening here light and music shows are held that give this place even more mystery.
The National Egyptian museum. 107 halls of the Egyptian Ancient museum have collected an unbelievable number of ancient items. The most popular are the items from the pyramid of Tutankhamen – in quantity of about 1700, including the famous mask of the boy-pharaoh. The total number of items exhibited in the museum is 120 000
The Nile. Lots of tour operators offer tours along the Nile that usually take a couple of days during which you cover the distance from Luxor to Aswan
Luxor. In the past the capital of Upper Egypt where you will see the Carnion temple, the huge statue of Ramses II, Luxor’s museum and the Mummy Museum
Aswan. A beautiful resort for a family holiday during winter situated in the south of the country.
Abu Soumbell, temples done out of the sandy cliffs raising above the Nile with 4 incredible 20 meter statues of Ramses II.
Karnak castle , a whole complex of temples.
Hatshepsut (Deir-El-Bahri) temple, situated on the west coast of Luxor. It is a magnificent temple built by architect Senenmut in honor of the only woman to reign Egypt like a Pharaoh
Alexandria, the second in terms of importance city in Egypt is famous for its numerous ancient Hellenic and Roman monuments, the history brings you back to the times when the city was the cultural center of Europe. The new library of Alexandria, the Greek-Roman museum, the famous Roman amphitheater, Kite-Bay fort built in the 15 century in the place of the Faros lighthouse, one of the seventh world wonders, the museum of fine arts and the palace of Montaza with it’s gorgeous gardens.
Active holidays
Active way of spending your holidays in Egypt first of all is diving, that is very popular in the Red sea and especially the Aqaba gulf due to the richness of the underwater world and wrecks. Especially a lot of dive centers are situated in the Sinai peninsular in towns like Dahab, Sharm-El Sheikh, Nuweiba, Taba. Here you can buy a diving package and study diving courses, rent equipment for diving and snorkeling and join a captivating dive-safari. As well you will find diving paradise in such places like Hurgada, Marsa Alam etc.
As well thanks to the winds the Aqaba gulf is a good choice windsurfing and kite surfing, In Dahab, Sharm and Hurgada you will find a number of schools and instructors training this captivating activities.
In Alexandria and Cairo you can do tennis, croquet, horse riding, gulf
Weekends and holidays
January, 7 – Coptic Christmas;
January, 21 – the Great Feasts;
April, 25 - Freedom Day;
May, 1 - Labor day;
May,2 - Coptic Easter;
June,18 - Liberation Day;
July, 23 – Revolution day;
August, 15 - the flood of Nile;
September, 11* - the Coptic New Year;
October, 6 - Day of Armed Forces;
October, 24 - Victory Date in Suez;
November, 3 - Bairam Holiday (the end of Ramadan);
Official weekend day - Friday.
Please note that the Coptic holidays are not official and Muslim holidays are based on the moon calendar and the dates mentioned are approximate
National Egyptian cuisine
The Egyptian cuisine consists of a great number of dishes out of beans – boiled beans, chops and sauces out of them. Usually, to the main course you will be served fresh bread and plates with sesame sauce (grated sesame with nuts and olive oil with added spices), also salads of fresh vegetables and cold karkade tea out of hibiscus leaves. We recommend you to try fresh juices out of guava, mango, pineapple, banana, pomegranate etc. Try out the Bedouin tea with the desert plant marmary, a kind of sagebrush.
Despite the contemporary dietitians the main accent in the ration of the Egyptians is done on dinner. For dinner all types of dishes out of mutton and beef, chicken, fish etc are served with salads and rice.
For dessert usually sweet, soaked in honey and covered with nuts bakery is served in what Egyptians are real masters. Also you can get nougat sweets, nuts like almonds, pistachio and peanuts.