1.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country 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. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, 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, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
2.
Hosni Mubarak
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Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak is a former Egyptian military and political leader who served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was an officer in the Egyptian Air Force. He served as its commander from 1972 to 1975 and rose to the rank of air marshal in 1973. Some time in the 1950s, he returned to the Air Force Academy as an instructor and he was appointed Vice-President of Egypt by President Anwar Sadat in 1975 and assumed the presidency on 14 October 1981, eight days after Sadats assassination. Mubaraks presidency lasted almost thirty years, making him Egypts longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled the country from 1805 to 1848, Mubarak stepped down after 18 days of demonstrations during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. On 11 February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as president, on 13 April 2011, a prosecutor ordered Mubarak and both of his sons to be detained for 15 days of questioning about allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Mubarak was then ordered to trial on charges of negligence for failing to halt the killing of peaceful protesters during the revolution. These trials began on 3 August 2011, on 2 June 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced Mubarak to life imprisonment. After sentencing, he was reported to have suffered a series of health crises, on 13 January 2013, Egypts Court of Cassation overturned Mubaraks sentence and ordered a retrial. On retrial, Mubarak and his sons were convicted on 9 May 2015 of corruption, Mubarak is detained in a military hospital and his sons were freed 12 October 2015 by a Cairo court. He was acquitted on 2 March 2017 by Court of Cassation and he was released on 24 March 2017. Hosni Mubarak was born on 4 May 1928 in Kafr El-Meselha, Monufia Governorate, after leaving high school, he joined the Egyptian Military Academy where he received a bachelors degree in Military Sciences in 1949. Mubarak served as an Egyptian Air Force officer in various formations and units, some time in the 1950s, he returned to the Air Force Academy as an instructor, remaining there until early 1959. Mubarak undertook training on the Ilyushin Il-28 and Tupolev Tu-16 jet bombers, in 1964 he gained a place at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow. On his return to Egypt, he served as a commander, then as a base commander. In November 1967, Mubarak became the Air Force Academys commander when he was credited with doubling the number of Air Force pilots, two years later, he became Chief of Staff for the Egyptian Air Force. In 1972, Mubarak became Commander of the Air Force and Egyptian Deputy Minister of Defense, on 6 October 1973, the Egyptian Air Force launched a surprise attack on Israeli soldiers on the east bank of the Suez Canal. Egyptian pilots hit 90% of their targets, making Mubarak a national hero, the next year he was promoted to Air Chief Marshal in recognition of service during the October War of 1973 against Israel
3.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
4.
Nile
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The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
5.
Esna
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Esna, known to the ancient Egyptians as Egyptian, Iunyt or Ta-senet, Coptic, ⲥⲛⲏ, which derives from Ta-senet, Greek, Λατόπολις or πόλις Λάτων or Λάττων, Latin, Lato, is a city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the River Nile, the town was formerly part of the modern Qena Governorate, but as of 9/12/2009, has been incorporated into the new Luxor Governorate. This city of Latopolis in the Thebaid region of Upper Egypt should not be confused with the more northerly city of Letopolis, ancient Khem, modern Ausim, held sacred, the Lates niloticus was buried in a cemetery west of the town. The tutelary deities of Latopolis seem to have been the triad – Khnum and Neith, the temple of Esna, dedicated to this triad, was remarkable for the beauty of its site and the magnificence of its architecture. It was built of red sandstone, and its portico consisted of six rows of four each, with lotus-leaf capitals. Another temple of the period has been identified at Kom Mer, about 12 km to the south. There was a temple, dedicated to the triad of Latopolis. Here, too, is a small Zodiac of the age of Ptolemy III Euergetes and this latter building was destroyed in the 19th century, as it stood in the way of a new canal. The temple of Esna was cleared of the soil and rubbish which filled its area when Denon visited it, and served as a cotton warehouse in the mid-19th century. With the exception of the jamb of a gateway – now converted into a door-sill – of the reign of Thutmose II, the name of Ptolemy V Epiphanes is found also inscribed upon a doorway. Although the scale of the ruins are impressive, their sculptures, the west wall features reliefs of Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Physcon. On the ceiling of the pronaos is the larger Latopolitan Zodiac, the name of the emperor Geta, the last ruler that can be read in hieroglyphics, although partially erased by his brother and murderer Caracalla, is still legible on the walls of Latopolis. Before raising their own edifice, the Romans seem to have destroyed even the basements of the earlier Egyptian temple, the ceremonial way, which probably linked the quay to the temple, has disappeared. The quay bears cartouches of Marcus Aurelius, the cemetery west of the town, where the Lates niloticus was buried, also contains human burials dating of the Middle Kingdom to the Late Period. The Temple of Esna conveys a sense of the importance which the Ancient Egyptians placed upon their places of worship, all Egyptians who entered the confines of an Egyptian temple were required to comply with the strict rules regarding ritual purity. Two barrage bridges straddle the Nile at this point, one built by the British in 1906, navigation, particularly, Nile cruisers ferrying tourists from Luxor to Aswan 155 km further upstream, can be held up for hours while vessels negotiate their way through the lock system. The two main points of interest in Esna are its lively tourist-oriented market, which fills a couple of streets leading inland from the corniche, the other is the temple of Esna. The temple, which has only partially excavated, is about 200 meters from the river
6.
Tutankhamun
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Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has, since his discovery, been referred to as King Tut. His original name, Tutankhaten, means Living Image of Aten, in hieroglyphs, the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamuns nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and it sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamuns mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world, in February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten. His mother was Akhenatens sister and wife, whose name is unknown, the mysterious deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamuns tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenatens sisters, as a prince, he was known as Tutankhaten. He ascended to the throne in 1333 BC, at the age of nine or ten and his wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara. His teacher was most likely Sennedjem, when he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, both stillborn, computed tomography studies released in 2011 revealed that one daughter died at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at 9 months of pregnancy. No evidence was found in either mummy of congenital anomalies or an apparent cause of death, given his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably including General Horemheb and Grand Vizier Ay. Horemheb records that the king appointed him lord of the land as hereditary prince to maintain law and he also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared. In his third year, under the influence of his advisors. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy, the ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned and this is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, Living image of Amun, reinforcing the restoration of Amun. As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb door declares the king had spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods. The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet and his restoration stela says, The temples of the gods and goddesses. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown and their sanctuaries were as non-existent and their courts were used as roads
7.
Obelisk
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An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks who saw them used the Greek obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic, that is, they consist of a single stone, though this technological capacity exists today, most modern obelisks are made of several stones, some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings. The term stele is used for other monumental, upright. Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The word obelisk as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, a number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the Unfinished Obelisk found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt, the earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot 120-metric-ton red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis. The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure, Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator god Atum settled in the creation story of the Heliopolitan creation myth form of Ancient Egyptian religion. The Benben stone is the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid and it is also related to the Obelisk. The pyramid and obelisk might have inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset. The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations. The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet tall, not all the Egyptian obelisks in the Roman Empire were set up at Rome. Herod the Great imitated his Roman patrons and set up a red granite Egyptian obelisk in the hippodrome of his new city Caesarea in northern Judea and this one is about 40 feet tall and weighs about 100 metric tons. It was discovered by archaeologists and has been re-erected at its former site and this one stood 95 feet tall and weighing 380 metric tons. Its lower half reputedly also once stood in Istanbul but is now lost, the Istanbul obelisk is 65 feet tall. Rome is the capital of the world
8.
Luxor
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Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896, with an area of approximately 416 square kilometres, immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the West Bank Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit these monuments, the name Luxor comes from the Arabic al-ʾuqṣur, lit. the palaces, from the collective pl. of qaṣr, which may be a loanword from the Latin castrum fortified camp. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. Montuhotep II who united Egypt after the troubles of the first intermediate period brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia, the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, a Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. However, as the city of the god Amon-Ra, Thebes remained the capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt and his great temple, at Karnak just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity. Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Assurbanipal who installed the Libyan prince on the throne, the city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any other city in Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have nearly the same climate, Luxor is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Average high temperatures are above 40 °C during summer while average low temperatures remain above 22 °C, during the coldest month of the year, average high temperatures remain above 22.0 °C while average low temperatures remain above 5 °C. The climate of Luxor has precipitation levels lower than even most other places in the Sahara, the desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall does not occur every year. The air is dry in Luxor but much more humid than in Aswan. There is a relative humidity of 39. 9%, with a maximum mean of 57% during winter. In addition, Luxor, Minya, Sohag, Qena and Asyut have the widest difference of temperatures between days and nights of any city in Egypt, with almost 16 °C difference. The hottest temperature recorded was on May 15,1991 which was 50 °C, the Coptic Catholic minority established on November 26,1895 an Eparchy of Luqsor alias Thebes, on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt
9.
Upper Egypt
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Upper Egypt is the strip of land on both sides of the Nile that extends between Nubia and downriver to Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile above modern-day Aswan, downriver to the area between Dahshur and El-Ayait, which is south of modern-day Cairo, the northern part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt. In Arabic, inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Saidis, in ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw, literally the Land of Reeds or the Sedgeland It was divided into twenty-two districts called nomes. The first nome was roughly where modern-day Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih just to the south of Cairo, the main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen, whose patron deity was the vulture goddess Nekhbet. By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops, shortly after 3600 BC, Egyptian society began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the Levantine ceramics, extensive use of copper became common during this time. The Mesopotamian process of sun-drying adobe and architectural principles—including the use of the arch, concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process, warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta, for most of pharaonic Egypts history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, its importance declined, under the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of Upper Egypts capital city. Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, and its symbols were the flowering lotus, in the 11th century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis. It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period, were the cause of the migration. In the 20th-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Said was used by the apparent to the Egyptian throne. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952, media related to Upper Egypt at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Minya Governorate
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Minya Governorate is one of the governorates of Upper Egypt. Its capital city, Minya is located on the bank of the Nile River. The name may originate from the citys name in Egyptian Menat Khufu. According to population estimates from 2015 the majority of residents in the live in rural areas. Out of an estimated 5,156,702 people residing in the governorate,4,183,284 people live in areas as opposed to only 973,418 in urban areas. The capital of Minya governorate is the city of Minya, the governorate is one of the most highly populated governorates of Upper Egypt. Its remarkable history, including Ancient Egyptian, Hellenistic, Roman, dehnet, Fraser Tombs, Sharuna, and Zawyet el-Maiyitin comprise monuments dating back to the Old Kingdom. The village of Bani Hasan al Shurruq houses 390 rock-cut decorated tombs, the Speos Artemidos is nearby, and hosts temples built by Queen Hatshepsut. Akhetaten was built by Pharaoh Akhenaten and dedicated to the god Aten, Akhenaten lived there in isolation with his beautiful wife, Nefertiti, and daughters, devoting himself to the monotheistic religion that he preached. The glorious remains of the palaces, temples and tombs still exist today, other significant archaeological sites in the governorate of Minya include Deir Abu Hinis, Deir el-Bersha, El-Sheikh Said, and Tuna el-Gebel. El Ashmunein was the capital of the region during this period and it was the main center of worship of the god Thoth. Today, the ruins of a Greek temple, similar to the Parthenon, the tomb and chapel of Petosiris are found near the modern village of Tuna el-Gebel. Antinopolis was built in 130 A. D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian in memory of his favorite cup-bearer Antinous, the Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Gebel el-Teir is an important Christian site near the city of Samalut. Its church was built by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, in 328, oxyrhynchus was an important administrative center during the Hellenistic Period, and remains an important archaeological source for papyri from the Byzantine Egypt. Maghagha hosts the mosque of the famous Muslim Zayid ibn al Mugharah, today, Minya governorate has the highest concentration of Coptic Christians of 50% of the total population. There are also a number of monasteries in the region. In 1981, the Basic Village Service Program of USAID, had several water, in 2013, The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security helped farmers in Minya by doing consultation work with them and taking soil samples. The national holiday of the Minya governorate is on 18 March and it commemorates those who were executed by the British at Deir Mawas on 18 March 1919
11.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
12.
Ismailia Governorate
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Ismailia Governorate is one of the Canal Zone governorates of Egypt. Located in the part of the country, its capital is the city of Ismailia. It was named after Ismail Pasha, who as Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt and it is located between the other two Canal governorates, Port Said Governorate, in the Northern part of Egypt and Suez Governorate. According to population estimates from 2015 the majority of residents in the live in rural areas. Out of an estimated 1,178,641 people residing in the governorate,643,778 people live in areas as opposed to only 534,863 in urban areas. Instead this festival has been celebrating its annual events in Ismailia Governorate and it is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Ismailia Governorate, The National Cinema Center and other sponsors. The Ismailia Governorate is on the banks of the Suez Canal and its Ismailia Canal extends from the Nile River near Cairo, to the Suez Canal at the city of Ismailia, the Ismailia Canal was built to provide fresh water to workers during the building of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal Authority headquarters is located in Ismailia, from 1967 to 1970, Ismailia became a war zone and was damaged in the conflict with Israel. There are several official fishing landing sites in Ismailia, one is at Lake Timsah and the other at Bitter Lake. After a successful SIP from 1992-1997, the United Nations expanded the project to include the entire Governorate of Ismailia calling it SGIP and its goal is to work with local partners to improve the communities in Ismailia
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Egypt
