1.
Governorates of Egypt
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Governorates are the first-level of the subdivisions. Egypt is divided, for administrative purposes, into twenty-seven governorates, egyptian governorates are the top tier of the countrys jurisdiction hierarchy. A governorate is administered by a governor, who is appointed by the President of Egypt, most governorates have a population density of more than one thousand per km², while the three largest have a population density of less than two per km². Governorates are either fully urban or else a mixture of urban, the official distinction between urban and rural is reflected in the lower tiers, i. e. fully urban governorates have no regions, as the markaz is, natively, a conglomeration of villages. Moreover, governorates may comprise just one city, as in the case of Cairo Governorate or Alexandria Governorate, hence, these one-city governorates are only divided into districts. Cairo Governorate consists of 41 districts, Alexandria Governorate consists of 7, two new governorates were created in April 2008, Helwan and 6th of October. In April 2011, however, the 6th of October and Helwan governorates were again incorporated into the Cairo and Giza Governorates, respectively. Luxor was created in December 2009, to be the 29th governorate of Egypt, but with the abolition of the 6th of October and Helwan governorates, before 1979, local government traditionally enjoyed limited power in Egypts highly centralized state. Under the central government, there were twenty-six governorates and these were subdivided into regions, each of which was further subdivided into towns or villages. At each level, there was a structure that combined representative councils and government-appointed executive organs headed by governors, district officers. Governors were appointed by the president, and they, in turn, the coercive backbone of the state apparatus ran downward from the Ministry of Interior through the governors executive organs to the district police station and the village headman. Before the 1952 revolution, state penetration of the areas was limited by the power of local notables. However, under Nasser, land reform reduced their socioeconomic dominance, the extension of officials into the countryside permitted the regime to bring development and services to the village. State penetration did not retreat under Sadat and Mubarak, the earlier effort to mobilize peasants and deliver services disappeared as the local party and cooperative withered, but administrative controls over the peasants remained intact. The local power of the old families and the headmen revived, the district police station balanced the notables, and the system of local government integrated them into the regime. Sadat took several measures to decentralize power to the provinces and towns, governors acquired more authority under Law Number 43 of 1979, which reduced the administrative and budgetary controls of the central government over the provinces. The elected councils acquired, at least formally, the right to approve or disapprove the local budget, in an effort to reduce local demands on the central treasury, local government was given wider powers to raise local taxes. Local representative councils became vehicles of pressure for government spending, under Mubarak decentralization and local autonomy became more of a reality, and local policies often reflected special local conditions
2.
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
3.
Kharga Oasis
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The Kharga Oasis, is the southernmost of Egypts five western oases. It is located in the Western Desert, about 200 km to the west of the Nile valley, Kharga or El Kharga is also the name of a major town located in the oasis, the capital of New Valley Governorate. The oasis, which was known as the Southern Oasis to the Ancient Egyptians, is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt and it is in a depression about 160 km long and from 20 km to 80 km wide. Kharga is the most modernized of Egypts western oases, the main town is highly functional with all modern facilities, and virtually nothing left of old architecture. Although framed by the oasis, there is no oasis feeling to it, there is extensive thorn palm, acacia, buffalo thorn and jujube growth in the oasis surrounding the modern town of Kharga. Many remnant wildlife species inhabit this region, the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert. A trade route called Darb El Arbaīn passed through Kharga in the south and it was used from as early as the Old Kingdom of Egypt for the transport and trade of gold, ivory, spices, wheat, animals and plants. The maximum extent of Darb El Arbaīn was northward from Kobbei in Darfur,25 miles north of al-Fashir, passing through the desert, through Bir Natrum and Wadi Howar, all the oases have always been crossroads of caravan routes converging from the barren desert. In the case of Kharga, this is particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb El Arbaīn route. The forts vary in size and function, some being just small outposts, some were installed where earlier settlements already existed, while others were probably started from scratch. All of them are made of mud bricks, but some contain small stone temples with inscriptions on the walls. Described by Herodotus as a road traversed, in forty days, by his time the route had already become an important land route facilitating trade between Nubia and Egypt. The length of the journey is the reason for it being called Darb El Arbaīn, there he lived for the rest of his life. The monastery suffered attacks by bandits, and Nestorius was injured in one such raid. As part of a proceeding to Dafur, the English explorer W. G. Browne paused for several days at Kharga. In 1930 the archaeologist, Gertrude Caton–Thompson, uncovered the history of Kharga. See Temple of Hibis Native Khargans belong to the related Beja ethnic group and they speak Beja, their own Afro-Asiatic language, though Arabic is the dominant tongue. A regular bus connects the oasis to the other Western oases
4.
Temple of Hibis
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The Temple of Hibis, c. 6th century BCE, is the largest and most well preserved temple in the Kharga Oasis. Excavations were started out early during the 20th century, Hibis is the finest example of a Persian Period temple in Egypt. Its reliefs are well preserved, owing to its burial in sand for many centuries. One large and unique wall-relief depicts a figure of Seth, god of the desert oases. He is painted blue, a colour reserved for air deities and is fighting the serpent Apep. Many deities are represented in the sanctuary and Min, another god, was also venerated here. At Kharga Oasis, the temple at Hibis remains the only witness to the scope and nature of the activities during the Late Period. It lays in the valley between the foothills of Gebels al-Teir and Nadura, there is little known about the ancient town, though early excavations did unearth a few houses with vaulted ceilings and fresco paintings. The temple was dedicated to the deity Amun, who was also known as the Lord of Hibis. One side of the temple was dedicated to Theban theology, and on the other, the decorative program showed notable peculiarities that have not been found elsewhere. The decorated naos has nine registers on its walls, which contain approximately 700 representations of gods and of what may perhaps be divine statues. At the head of these representations, the king is shown in each register performing a ritual, grouped by sepat, they present an overview of the active cults of the time, organized by region and interestingly, each sepat takes a form of Osiris. The temple was built in honour of the Theban Triad which consists of Amun, Mut, the period of this dynasty is also called the Saite Period after the city of Sais, where its pharaohs had their capital. The construction work started under the rule of Iris and then Ahmos II, ptolemy II has also added the two outmost portals. The temple starts from the East with the sacred lake and the ports. Then there is the Roman gate that dates back to the Roman emperor, Galba, afterwards, there is the rams passageway that leads to the major gate of the temple. Afterwards, there is the Sanctum of the temple with its unique inscriptions. The construction follows the plan of the traditional Egyptian temple, the hypostyle hall of the Hibis temple was also decorated in an unusual fashion. Excavation of this temple has yielded numerous statues of the god as well as a large quantity of demotic ostraca
5.
Western Desert (Egypt)
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The Western Desert of Egypt is an area of the Sahara which lies west of the river Nile, up to the Libyan border, and south from the Mediterranean sea to the border with Sudan. It is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east from the Nile to Red Sea, the Western Desert is mostly rocky desert, though an area of sandy desert, known as the Great Sand Sea, lies to the west against the Libyan border. The desert covers an area of 262,800 sq miles which is two-thirds of the area of the country. Its highest elevation is 3,300 ft in the Gilf Kebir plateau to the far south-west of the country, the Western Desert is barren and uninhabited save for a chain of oases which extend in an arc from Siwa, in the north-west, to Kharga in the south. However it has been the scene of conflict in modern times and he also states that little of the area conforms to the romantic view. These lie in an arc from Siwa in the north-west near the Libyan border, to Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, east of Siwa lies the Qattara Depression, a low-lying area dotted with salt marsh and extending 190 miles west to east and 84 miles north to south. Further to the east, near the Nile, another depression gives rise to the Fayyum Oasis, to the south, beyond the Bahariya oasis lies the Black Desert, an area of black volcanic hills and dolerite deposits. Beyond this, north of Farafra, lies the White Desert, an area of wind-sculpted chalk rock formations, which give the area its name. To the south of Kharga the plateau rises towards the Gilf Kebir, an upland region lying astride the Egypt-Sudan border and home to pre-historic sites such as the Cave of Swimmers. In the south-west, near the point where the borders of Libya, Sudan and Egypt meet, is an area of glass, thought to have been formed by a meteorite strike at Kebira. The Great Sand Sea is a roughly lung-shaped area of sandy desert lying astride the border with Libya,200 miles inland from the Mediterranean. The sea is divided by a peninsula of rocky desert along the border, leaving the eastern lobe in Egypt and the western in Libya. On the Egyptian side it extends from a point south of Siwa for 400 miles into the interior, the Western Desert was known historically as the Libyan Desert, taking its name from Ancient Libya, which lay between the Nile and Cyrenaica. With the formation of the state of Libya, the term Western Desert has come to describe part of the Sahara in Egypt. To the Ancient Greeks, the term Libya described the whole Saharan littoral west of the Nile to the Atlas mountains. During Roman times the term Libya was limited to Cyrenaica and the region between there and Egypt, which were organized as the provinces of Libya Superior and Libya Inferior, the term Libyan Desert then applied to the area to the south of these. Playfair described the Western Desert of 1940 as being 240 miles wide and 150 miles wide, the contemporary use of the term refers to the entire desert in Egypt west of the Nile. It is thought over-grazing and climate led to desertification and the current geography
Egypt
