90% of Egypt's 997 739 square km, is desert, however, the 4,000 mile (though only the last quarter of this lies in Egypt) Nile river runs throught the country creating a fertile green valley, and delta, where 90% of the population lives. Egypt is bordered on the east by Libya, on the south by Sudan, on the east by Israel, the gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea; and on the north by the Mediterranean Sea. West of the Nile, covering about two thirds of the country, lies the Western, or Libyan Desert, this desert hosts some oases'. This desert is part of the Sahara, which runs from the Atlantic coast, right across northern Africa, to the Nile Valley. To the east of the nile lies the Eastern or Arabian desert, which is more mountainous and barren. This desert starts at the Nile valley and runs east to the coast.
The capital city is Cairo, it is the main political and commercial centre, one in four Egyptians live there (that's approx 13 million people!) Alexandria (where Marwa and Mohammed live) is the second largest city, with around 3 million people. Alexandria, in ancient times housed two of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Alexandria Lighthouse, and the world's first public library.
Egypt has a very impressive history, My sister has recieved a few interesting pictures from Mohammed, even a picture of Tutenkharman's death mask, which is printed on Papyrus paper. Papyrus is a type of water reed which was used to make paper in ancient times. It is no longer found in the wild, but only grows on plantations.
Everyone knows of the pyramids, but did you know, that the first one was built during the 3rd dynasty which began around 2686 BC! This first pyramid started off as a large tomb,but was redesigned a few times to become a 200 foot high pyramid. After that, each pharoh tried to outdo his predecessors when they built their pyramids. One of the pharohs even built 2! The first of his was known as the Bent Pyramid, due to it's unusual shape, and the second was known as the Red Pyramid, because of the pink limestone used to build it, and it can still be seen today. Further north, the Great Pyramid of Khufu was built. It is 481 feet high, and covers a base of 13 acres. It is the only ancient wonder of the world still standing.
The current Egyptian flag is divided into thirds horizontally. The top section is red, representing the revolution, the next section is white, standing for the bright future of the country, and the bottom is black to represent the dark past. In the centre of the flag is a hawk emblem, which is associated with Mohammed, the founder of Islam. (Egypt being a predominately Muslim country, 90% of the population are Sunni Muslims, only 8% are Christians. If anyone knows what the other 2% are, please e-mail me!)
The official language of Egypt is Arabic. Approximately 80% of Egyptians are Hamitic arabs, which is a combination of the ancient egyptian Hamite people, and the Arabs who began moving into the country from the seventh century. Of course there are many other influences. Some Egyptians are dark skinned with traces of Nubian blood in them, there are also lighter skinned people of Turkish decent, and some people are even blond haired, and of Syrian decent. Egypt has two main minority groups, the Nubians, who come from the very south of the country, though they are moving further across the country since the construction of the High Dam; and the Bedouins who were originally desert nomads, though most now live in villages in the oases.

Many children are given names from the Koran. Mohammed is certainly the most popular choice for boys, and is said to be the most used name in the entire world. For more information on names, see the section in Leila's Page.
For an unbelievable amount of pictures and goodness knows what, go here.
For unbelievable amounts of information, go to Ahmad's Egyptian Index
For a currency converter visit Yahoo Currency Converter
To see pictures of this country's paper money, go to Ron Wise's Paper Money Homepage
To see the language make up of Egypt, go here.
For a page showing the holidays of Egypt, look at the Global Calender

	Here is a little pic of the Nile river, and I think, there is a temple in the middle of the pic too.
Here is a picture of the famous Sphinx. I heard that it's nose broke off because Napoleon used it for target practise. Is that true anyone??

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Now we leave Marwa and Mohammed, and cross the Mediterranean...