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136-825: The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis ) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid , the Pyramid of Khafre , and the Pyramid of Menkaure , along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx . All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt , between c.  2600  – c.  2500 BC . The site also includes several temples, cemeteries, and

272-435: A metropolitan area with a population of over 20 million. On 17 November 1997, 62 people, mostly tourists, were massacred near Luxor . In late February 2005, Mubarak announced a reform of the presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls for the first time since the 1952 movement . However, the new law placed restrictions on the candidates, and led to Mubarak's easy re-election victory. Voter turnout

408-597: A republic . For a brief period between 1958 and 1961 Egypt merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic . Egypt fought several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948 , 1956 , 1967 and 1973 , and occupied the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967. In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords , which recognised Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from the occupied Sinai. After

544-611: A cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century, concentrating land ownership and shifting production towards international markets. Muhammad Ali annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia ; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans. His military ambition required him to modernise

680-594: A clear majority of the seats for Egypt's Mostaqbal Watan ( Nation's Future ) Party, which strongly supports president El-Sisi. The party even increased its majority, partly because of new electoral rules. Khufu ship The ship was preserved in the Giza Solar boat museum , but was moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in August 2021. The history and function of the ship is not precisely known. It

816-442: A copper workshop, a hospital, and a cemetery (where some of the skeletons were found with signs of trauma associated with accidents on a building site). The metal processed at the site was the so-called arsenical copper . The same material was also identified among the copper artefacts from the "Kromer" site, from the reigns of Khufu and Khafre. The workers' town appears to date from the middle 4th Dynasty (2520–2472 BC), after

952-457: A crowd of approximately 100,000 people. The complex was used for the final draw of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship . Egypt's Minister of Tourism unveiled plans for a € 17,000,000 revamp of the complex by the end of 2021, in order to boost tourism in Egypt as well as make the site more accessible and tourist-friendly. According to Lonely Planet ,

1088-618: A deputy to Egypt to govern for him. In 828 another Egyptian revolt broke out, and in 831 the Copts joined with native Muslims against the government. Eventually the power loss of the Abbasids in Baghdad led for general upon general to take over rule of Egypt, yet being under Abbasid allegiance, the Tulunid dynasty (868–905) and Ikhshidid dynasty (935–969) were among the most successful to defy

1224-616: A disturbed earlier settlement. Further Maadi settlement near the site was uncovered during work on the Greater Cairo Wastewater Project. Recent reassessment of the radiocarbon dating puts the Maadi culture's eponymous settlement to c.  3800  – c.  3400 BC , which is also the likely maximum possible range for the Giza remains. The Giza pyramid complex consists of the Great Pyramid (also known as

1360-776: A founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement , the Arab League , the African Union , Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , World Youth Forum , and a member of BRICS . The English name "Egypt" is derived from the Ancient Greek " Aígyptos " (" Αἴγυπτος "), via Middle French "Egypte" and Latin " Aegyptus ". It is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as "a-ku-pi-ti-yo". The adjective "aigýpti-"/"aigýptios"

1496-584: A lake, or a river. However, the vessel may not have been designed for sailing, as there is no rigging, or for rowing, as there is no room. Its discovery was described as one of the greatest Ancient Egyptian discoveries in Zahi Hawass 's documentary Egypt's Ten Greatest Discoveries . It took years for the boat to be reassembled, primarily by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities ' chief restorer, Ahmed Youssef Moustafa. Before reconstructing

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1632-455: A military unit to be reckoned with. The resentment for the military way of life eventually faded from the men and a new ideology took hold, one of nationalism and pride. It was with the help of this newly reborn martial unit that Muhammad Ali imposed his rule over Egypt. The policy that Mohammad Ali Pasha followed during his reign explains partly why the numeracy in Egypt compared to other North-African and Middle-Eastern countries increased only at

1768-491: A pyramid. The Giza pyramid complex is surrounded by a large stone wall, outside which Mark Lehner and his team discovered a town where the pyramid workers were housed. The village is located to the southeast of the Khafre and Menkaure complexes. Among the discoveries at the workers' village are communal sleeping quarters, bakeries, breweries, and kitchens (with evidence showing that bread, beef, and fish were dietary staples),

1904-618: A remarkably small rate, as investment in further education only took place in the military and industrial sector. Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863) who encouraged science and agriculture and banned slavery in Egypt. Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It

2040-522: A report alleging that Egypt had become an international centre for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror . Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report. Constitutional changes voted on 19 March 2007 prohibited parties from using religion as a basis for political activity, allowed the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law, authorised broad police powers of arrest and surveillance, and gave

2176-511: A ship, and the two pits on the south side of the pyramid contained intact ships when excavated. One of these ships, the Khufu ship , has been restored and was originally displayed at the Giza Solar boat museum , then subsequently moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum . Khufu's pyramid still has a limited number of casing stones at its base. These casing stones were made of fine white limestone quarried at Tura . Khafre 's pyramid complex consists of

2312-721: A sovereign union known as the United Arab Republic . The union was short-lived, ending in 1961 when Syria seceded. During most of its existence, the United Arab Republic was also in a loose confederation with North Yemen (or the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen), known as the United Arab States . In the early 1960s, Egypt became fully involved in the North Yemen Civil War . Despite several military moves and peace conferences,

2448-400: A stable foundation. After carefully surveying the site and laying down the first level of stones, they constructed the pyramids in horizontal levels, one on top of the other. For the Great Pyramid , most of the stone for the interior seems to have been quarried immediately to the south of the construction site. The smooth exterior of the pyramid was made of a fine grade of white limestone that

2584-586: A structure built, which is now referred to as the king's resthouse. During the 19th Dynasty , Seti I added to the temple of Hauron-Haremakhet, and his son Ramesses II erected a stela in the chapel before the Sphinx and usurped the resthouse of Tutankhamun. During the 21st Dynasty , the Temple of Isis Mistress-of-the-Pyramids was reconstructed. During the 26th Dynasty , a stela made in this time mentions Khufu and his Queen Henutsen . In 1903, rights to excavate

2720-582: A temple dedicated to Hauron-Haremakhet near the Sphinx. As a prince, the future pharaoh Thutmose IV visited the pyramids and the Sphinx; he reported being told in a dream that if he cleared the sand that had built up around the Sphinx, he would be rewarded with kingship. This event is recorded in the Dream Stele , which he had installed between the Sphinx's front legs. During the early years of his reign, Thutmose IV, together with his wife Queen Nefertari, had stelae erected at Giza. Pharaoh Tutankhamun had

2856-444: A valley temple, the Sphinx temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple, and the king's pyramid. The valley temple yielded several statues of Khafre. Several were found in a well in the floor of the temple by Mariette in 1860. Others were found during successive excavations by Sieglin (1909–1910), Junker, Reisner, and Hassan. Khafre's complex contained five boat-pits and a subsidiary pyramid with a serdab . Khafre's pyramid appears larger than

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2992-503: Is a narrow burial-shaft leading to three levels for a tomb and below it a flooded area. It was first mentioned by Hassan, and a thorough excavation was conducted by a team led by Hawass in 1999. It was opened to tourists in November 2017. During the New Kingdom Giza was still an active site. A brick-built chapel was constructed near the Sphinx during the early 18th Dynasty , probably by King Thutmose I . Amenhotep II built

3128-564: Is directly cognate with the Biblical Hebrew Miṣráyīm (מִצְרַיִם / מִצְרָיִם), meaning "the two straits", a reference to the predynastic separation of Upper and Lower Egypt . Also mentioned in several Semitic languages as Mesru , Misir and Masar . The oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" ("miṣru") related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru , meaning "border" or "frontier". The Neo-Assyrian Empire used

3264-436: Is of the type known as a " solar barge ", a ritual vessel believed by ancient Egyptians to carry the resurrected king across the heavens with the sun god Ra . However, it bears some signs of having been used in water, and it is possible that the ship was either a funerary "barge" used to carry the king's embalmed body from Memphis to Giza, or even that Khufu himself used it as a "pilgrimage ship" to visit holy places and that it

3400-627: Is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while " Maṣr " ( Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mɑsˤɾ] ; مَصر ) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic . The current name of Egypt, Misr/Misir/Misru, stems from the Ancient Semitic name for it. The term originally connoted " Civilization " or " Metropolis ". Classical Arabic Miṣr (Egyptian Arabic Maṣr )

3536-585: Is the capital and largest city of Egypt , while Alexandria , the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast . At approximately 110 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world , and the third-most populated in Africa. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to

3672-690: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War . During the 1967 war, an Emergency Law was enacted, and remained in effect until 2012, with the exception of an 18-month break in 1980/81. Under this law, police powers were extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship legalised. At the time of the fall of the Egyptian monarchy in the early 1950s, less than half a million Egyptians were considered upper class and rich, four million middle class and 17 million lower class and poor. Fewer than half of all primary-school-age children attended school, most of them being boys. Nasser's policies changed this. Land reform and distribution,

3808-416: The 5th Dynasty , a smaller ante-temple was added on to the valley temple. The mortuary temple also yielded several statues of Menkaure. The king's pyramid, completed c.  2510 BC , has three subsidiary or queen's pyramids. Of the four major monuments, only Menkaure's pyramid is seen today without any of its original polished limestone casing. The Sphinx dates from the reign of king Khafre . During

3944-518: The Abusir , Saqqara , and Dahshur pyramid complexes, which were all built in the vicinity of Egypt's ancient capital of Memphis . Further Old Kingdom pyramid fields were located at the sites Abu Rawash , Zawyet El Aryan , and Meidum . The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt , and they have historically been common as emblems of Ancient Egypt in

4080-611: The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded and British troops withdrew from Egypt, except for the Suez Canal. The treaty did not resolve the question of Sudan , which, under the terms of the existing Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899, stated that Sudan should be jointly governed by Egypt and Britain, but with real power remaining in British hands. Britain used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout

4216-687: The Arab League , but it was supported by most Egyptians. Sadat was assassinated by an Islamic extremist in October 1981. Hosni Mubarak came to power after the assassination of Sadat in a referendum in which he was the only candidate. He became another leader to dominate the Egyptian history . Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed Egypt's relationship with Israel yet eased the tensions with Egypt's Arab neighbours. Domestically, Mubarak faced serious problems. Mass poverty and unemployment led rural families to stream into cities like Cairo where they ended up in crowded slums, barely managing to survive. On 25 February 1986 ,

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4352-700: The Arab Republic of Egypt , is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in the southwest corner of Asia . It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast , the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south , and Libya to the west . The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia . Cairo

4488-516: The Arab Spring , which led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and overthrow of Hosni Mubarak , the country faced a protracted period of political unrest ; this included the election in 2012 of a brief, short-lived Muslim Brotherhood -aligned Islamist government spearheaded by Mohamed Morsi , and its subsequent overthrow after mass protests in 2013 . The current government, a semi-presidential republic led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he

4624-706: The Ottoman Turks , Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans. After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha , an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. Muhammad Ali massacred the Mamluks and established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton transformed its agriculture into

4760-457: The Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII , who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony , after Octavian had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark

4896-631: The Ptolemaic dynasty . The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a centre of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The last ruler from

5032-632: The Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramids . The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilisation of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c.  2040 BCE, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III . A second period of disunity heralded

5168-590: The Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution . The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922. Following independence from the United Kingdom, Sultan Fuad I assumed

5304-658: The elections of June 2014 El-Sisi won with a percentage of 96.1%. On 8 June 2014, Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was officially sworn in as Egypt's new president. Under President el-Sisi, Egypt has implemented a rigorous policy of controlling the border to the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of tunnels between the Gaza strip and Sinai. In April 2018, El-Sisi was re-elected by a landslide in election with no real opposition. In April 2019, Egypt's parliament extended presidential terms from four to six years. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

5440-409: The mastaba numbers such as Cemetery G 1000, Cemetery G 1100, etc. The West Field contains Cemetery G1000 – Cemetery G1600, and Cemetery G 1900. Further cemeteries in this field are: Cemeteries G 2000, G 2200, G 2500, G 3000, G 4000, and G 6000. Three other cemeteries are named after their excavators: Junker Cemetery West, Junker Cemetery East, and Steindorff Cemetery. The East Field is located to

5576-408: The 1990s an Islamist group, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya , engaged in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economy—tourism —and in turn to the government, but it also devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom

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5712-532: The 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation , the Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity , later adopting Islam from the seventh century onwards. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in the tenth century, and of

5848-629: The Abbasid Caliph. Muslim rulers remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate . With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty , the Mamluks , a Turco - Circassian military caste, took control about 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies. The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of

5984-859: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement was signed: the Agreement stated that Sudan would be jointly governed by the Khedivate of Egypt and the United Kingdom. However, actual control of Sudan was in British hands only. In 1906, the Denshawai incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist movement. In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in alliance with the Central Empires; Khedive Abbas II (who had grown increasingly hostile to

6120-481: The Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BCE. A unified kingdom

6256-487: The British in preceding years) decided to support the motherland in war. Following such decision, the British forcibly removed him from power and replaced him with his brother Hussein Kamel . Hussein Kamel declared Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire, assuming the title of Sultan of Egypt . Shortly following independence, Egypt was declared a protectorate of the United Kingdom. After World War I , Saad Zaghlul and

6392-674: The Council of Regency, led by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim was formed. The council, however, held only nominal authority and the real power was actually in the hands of the Revolutionary Command Council , led by Naguib and Nasser. Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated

6528-608: The Egyptian Auxiliary Police were observed helping the guerrillas. In response, on 25 January, General George Erskine sent out British tanks and infantry to surround the auxiliary police station in Ismailia. The police commander called the Interior Minister, Fouad Serageddin , Nahas's right-hand man, to ask if he should surrender or fight. Serageddin ordered the police to fight "to the last man and

6664-550: The Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia , and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs , including Hatshepsut , Thutmose III , Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti , Tutankhamun and Ramesses II . The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism . Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to

6800-418: The Evangelist in the 1st century. Diocletian 's reign (284–305 CE) marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in CE 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. The Byzantines were able to regain control of

6936-446: The Italian Ernesto Schiaparelli from the Turin Museum, the German Georg Steindorff from the University of Leipzig who had funding from Wilhelm Pelizaeus, and the American George Reisner from the Hearst Expedition. Within a matter of months, the site had been divided between the concessionaires following a meeting at the Mena House Hotel involving Schiaparelli, Ludwig Borchardt (Steindorff's representative in Egypt), and Reisner. By

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7072-452: The Italian army invaded Egypt. The Egyptian army did no fighting. In June 1940 the King dismissed Prime Minister Aly Maher, who got on poorly with the British. A new coalition Government was formed with the Independent Hassan Pasha Sabri as prime minister. Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson , pressed Farouk to have a Wafd or Wafd-coalition government replace Hussein Sirri Pasha 's government. On

7208-405: The Italian excavations ceased at Giza. As the Italians were more interested in sites which might yield more papyri, they turned their concession of the southern strip of the Western Cemetery over to the Americans under Reisner. In 1978, the Grateful Dead played a series of concerts later released as Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 . In 2007, Colombian singer Shakira performed at the complex to

7344-429: The Muslim Brotherhood leaders and activists have either been sentenced to death or life imprisonment in a series of mass trials. On 18 January 2014, the interim government instituted a new constitution following a referendum approved by an overwhelming majority of voters (98.1%). 38.6% of registered voters participated in the referendum a higher number than the 33% who voted in a referendum during Morsi's tenure. In

7480-572: The Muslim Brotherhood. Liberal and secular groups walked out of the constituent assembly because they believed that it would impose strict Islamic practices, while Muslim Brotherhood backers threw their support behind Morsi. On 22 November 2012, President Morsi issued a temporary declaration immunising his decrees from challenge and seeking to protect the work of the constituent assembly. The move led to massive protests and violent action throughout Egypt. On 5 December 2012, tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Morsi clashed, in what

7616-430: The New Kingdom, Amenhotep II dedicated a new temple to Hauron-Haremakhet and this structure was added onto by later rulers. Khentkaus I was buried in Giza. Her tomb is known as LG 100 and G 8400 and is located in the Central Field , near the valley temple of Menkaure . The pyramid complex of Queen Khentkaus includes her pyramid, a boat pit, a valley temple, and a pyramid town. Most construction theories are based on

7752-502: The New Kingdom. The country was later invaded and conquered by Libyans , Nubians and Assyrians , but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country. In 525 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire , led by Cambyses II , began their conquest of Egypt, eventually capturing the pharaoh Psamtik III at the battle of Pelusium . Cambyses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh , but ruled Egypt from his home of Susa in Persia (modern Iran), leaving Egypt under

7888-453: The Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society. By about 6000 BCE, a Neolithic culture took root in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt . The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt . The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates

8024-406: The Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu and constructed c.  2580  – c.  2560 BC ), the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren) a few hundred metres to the south-west, and the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos) a few hundred metres farther south-west. The Great Sphinx lies on the east side of the complex. Consensus among Egyptologists is that

8160-503: The Security Police started rioting, protesting against reports that their term of duty was to be extended from 3 to 4 years. Hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and casinos were attacked in Cairo and there were riots in other cities. A day time curfew was imposed. It took the army 3 days to restore order. 107 people were killed. In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, terrorist attacks in Egypt became numerous and severe, and began to target Christian Copts , foreign tourists and government officials. In

8296-442: The Shura Council and installed a temporary interim government. On 4 July 2013, 68-year-old Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour was sworn in as acting president over the new government following the removal of Morsi. The new Egyptian authorities cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, jailing thousands and forcefully dispersing pro-Morsi and pro-Brotherhood protests. Many of

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8432-418: The Sinai Peninsula border with Israel, and on 23 May he closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. On 26 May Nasser declared, "The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel". This prompted the beginning of the Third Arab Israeli War (Six-Day War) in which Israel attacked Egypt, and occupied Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip , which Egypt had occupied since

8568-811: The Soviet advisors in 1972. Egypt was renamed as Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971. Sadat launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while clamping down on religious and secular opposition. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the Fourth Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War), a surprise attack to regain part of the Sinai territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. In 1975, Sadat shifted Nasser's economic policies and sought to use his popularity to reduce government regulations and encourage foreign investment through his programme of Infitah. Through this policy, incentives such as reduced taxes and import tariffs attracted some investors, but investments were mainly directed at low risk and profitable ventures like tourism and construction, abandoning Egypt's infant industries. Because of

8704-407: The Sphinx's associated temples. Reisner claimed Menkaure's pyramid as well as its associated queens' pyramids and pyramid temple, along with a portion of Schiaparelli's Eastern Cemetery. Any future disputes were to be resolved by Inspector James Quibell , as per a letter from Borchardt to Maspero. This arrangement lasted until 1905, when, under the supervision of Schiaparelli and Francesco Ballerini,

8840-411: The Suez Canal on 26 July 1956; his hostile approach towards Israel and economic nationalism prompted the beginning of the Second Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis), in which Israel (with support from France and the United Kingdom) occupied the Sinai peninsula and the Canal. The war came to an end because of US and USSR diplomatic intervention and the status quo was restored. In 1958, Egypt and Syria formed

8976-417: The Suez Canal. As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government cut off the water and refused to allow food into the Suez Canal base, announced a boycott of British goods, forbade Egyptian workers from entering the base and sponsored guerrilla attacks. On 24 January 1952, Egyptian guerrillas staged a fierce attack on the British forces around the Suez Canal, during which

9112-451: The Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day. He was replaced by Aly Maher Pasha . On 22–23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement , led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser , launched a coup d'état ( Egyptian Revolution of 1952 ) against the king. Farouk I abdicated the throne to his son Fouad II , who was, at the time, a seven-month-old baby. The Royal Family left Egypt some days later and

9248-414: The War. Anti-monarchy sentiments further increased following the disastrous performance of the Kingdom in the First Arab-Israeli War . The 1950 election saw a landslide victory of the nationalist Wafd Party and the King was forced to appoint Mostafa El-Nahas as new prime minister. In 1951 Egypt unilaterally withdrew from the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and ordered all remaining British troops to leave

9384-444: The West Field and Pyramids of the Giza Necropolis were divided by three institutions from Italy, Germany, and the United States of America. Prior to the division of the Giza Plateau into three institutional concessions in 1903, amateur and private excavations at the Giza Necropolis had been permitted to operate. The work of these amateur archaeologists failed to meet high scientific standards. Montague Ballard, for instance, excavated in

9520-422: The Western Cemetery (with the hesitant permission of the Egyptian Antiquities Service) and neither kept records of his finds nor published them. In 1902, the Egyptian Antiquities Service under Gaston Maspero resolved to issue permits exclusively to authorized individuals representing public institutions. In November of that year, the Service awarded three scholars with concessions on the Giza Necropolis. They were

9656-427: The Western imagination . They were popularised in Hellenistic times, when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World . It is by far the oldest of the Ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence. The earliest settlement of the Giza plateau predates the pyramid complexes. Four jars from the Maadi culture were found at the foot of the Great Pyramid, likely from

9792-627: The accepted time of Khufu and completion of the Great Pyramid. According to Lehner and the AERA team: Using pottery shards, seal impressions, and stratigraphy to date the site, the team further concludes: Radiocarbon data for the Old Kingdom Giza plateau and the workers' settlement were published in 2006, and then re-evaluated in 2011. As the pyramids were constructed, the mastabas for lesser royals were constructed around them. Near

9928-434: The adjacent Khufu Pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location, and the steeper angle of inclination of its construction—it is, in fact, smaller in both height and volume. Khafre's pyramid retains a prominent display of casing stones at its apex. Menkaure 's pyramid complex consists of a valley temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple, and the king's pyramid. The valley temple once contained several statues of Menkaure. During

10064-501: The afterlife. The tombs' proximity to the pyramids and the manner of burial supports the theory that they were paid laborers who took pride in their work and were not slaves, as was previously thought. Evidence from the tombs indicates that a workforce of 10,000 laborers working in three-month shifts took around 30 years to build a pyramid. Most of the workers appear to have come from poor families. Specialists such as architects, masons, metalworkers, and carpenters were permanently employed by

10200-542: The arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos . The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BCE and founded a new capital at Avaris . They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I , who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes . The New Kingdom c.  1550–1070 BCE began with

10336-524: The battle of Heliopolis. Amr next proceeded in the direction of Alexandria, which surrendered to him by a treaty signed on 8 November 641. Alexandria was regained for the Byzantine Empire in 645 but was retaken by Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed. The Arabs founded the capital of Egypt called Fustat , which was later burned down during the Crusades. Cairo

10472-552: The boat, Moustafa had to gain enough experience on Ancient Egyptian boatbuilding. He studied the reliefs carved on walls and tombs as well as many of the small wooden models of ships and boats found in tombs. Moustafa visited the Nile boatyards of Old Cairo and Maadi and went to Alexandria , where wooden river boats were still being made. He hoped that modern Egyptian shipwrights had retained shipbuilding methods that would suggest how Ancient Egyptians built their ships. Then he investigated

10608-530: The bulk of the swelling middle class in Egypt under Nasser. During the 1960s, the Egyptian economy went from sluggish to the verge of collapse, the society became less free, and Nasser's appeal waned considerably. In 1970, President Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat . During his period , Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling

10744-494: The causeway of Khafre and the Great Sphinx. These tombs include the tomb of a commander of the army named Ahmose and his mother Queen Nakhtubasterau, who was the wife of Pharaoh Amasis II . The South Field includes mastabas dating from the 1st Dynasty to 3rd Dynasty as well as later burials. Of the more significant of these early dynastic tombs are one referred to as "Covington's tomb", otherwise known as Mastaba T, and

10880-534: The control of a satrapy . The entire Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt , from 525 to 402 BCE, save for Petubastis III , was an entirely Achaemenid-ruled period, with the Achaemenid emperors all being granted the title of pharaoh. A few temporarily successful revolts against the Achaemenids marked the fifth century BCE, but Egypt was never able to permanently overthrow the Achaemenids. The Thirtieth Dynasty

11016-691: The country after a brief Sasanid Persian invasion early in the 7th century amidst the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during which they established a new short-lived province for ten years known as Sasanian Egypt , until 639–42, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Islamic caliphate by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Islam to

11152-505: The country's population. Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire . The defensive militarisation damaged its civil society and economic institutions. The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade. Between 1687 and 1731, Egypt experienced six famines. The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population. Egypt

11288-399: The country. Some time during this period, Egyptians began to blend in their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. These earlier rites had survived the period of Coptic Christianity . In 639 an army was sent in Egypt by the second caliph , Umar , under the command of Amr ibn al-As . They defeated a Roman army at

11424-465: The country: he built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service. He constructed a military state with around four percent of the populace serving the army to raise Egypt to a powerful positioning in the Ottoman Empire in a way showing various similarities to the Soviet strategies (without communism) conducted in the 20th century. Muhammad Ali Pasha evolved

11560-509: The derived term [REDACTED] , Mu-ṣur . There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BCE , a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain -grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BCE began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara . Early tribal peoples migrated to

11696-428: The dramatic growth in university education, and government support to national industries greatly improved social mobility and flattened the social curve. From academic year 1953–54 through 1965–66, overall public school enrolments more than doubled. Millions of previously poor Egyptians, through education and jobs in the public sector, joined the middle class. Doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, journalists, constituted

11832-426: The east of Khufu's pyramid and contains cemetery G 7000. This cemetery was a burial place for some of the family members of Khufu. The cemetery also includes mastabas from tenants and priests of the pyramids dated to the 5th Dynasty and 6th Dynasty. This cemetery dates from the time of Menkaure (Junker) or earlier (Reisner), and contains several stone-built mastabas dating from as late as the 6th Dynasty . Tombs from

11968-580: The election of Nasser in 1956. In October 1954, Egypt and the United Kingdom agreed to abolish the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899 and grant Sudan independence; the agreement came into force on 1 January 1956. Nasser assumed power as president in June 1956 and began dominating the history of modern Egypt . British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalised

12104-458: The elimination of subsidies on basic foodstuffs, it led to the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots . Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977 , which led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. In return, Egypt recognised Israel as a legitimate sovereign state. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from

12240-413: The exterior casing stones all had to be equal in height and width. Workers might have marked all the blocks to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall and trimmed the surfaces carefully so that the blocks fit together. During construction, the outer surface of the stone was smooth limestone; excess stone has eroded over time. New insights into the closing stages of the Great Pyramid building were provided by

12376-469: The first President of the Republic, serving in that capacity for a little under one and a half years. Republic of Egypt (1953–1958) was declared. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser  – a Pan-Arabist and the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest . After Naguib's resignation, the position of president was vacant until

12512-456: The formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmed ʻUrabi a prominent figure. After increasing tensions and nationalist revolts, the United Kingdom invaded Egypt in 1882, crushing the Egyptian army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir and militarily occupying the country. Following this, the Khedivate became a de facto British protectorate under nominal Ottoman sovereignty. In 1899

12648-633: The group depended for support. During Mubarak's reign, the political scene was dominated by the National Democratic Party , which was created by Sadat in 1978. It passed the 1993 Syndicates Law, 1995 Press Law, and 1999 Nongovernmental Associations Law which hampered freedoms of association and expression by imposing new regulations and draconian penalties on violations. As a result, by the late 1990s parliamentary politics had become virtually irrelevant and alternative avenues for political expression were curtailed as well. Cairo grew into

12784-446: The head of the Great Sphinx is that of Khafre . Along with these major monuments are a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as "queens" pyramids, causeways, and temples. Besides the archaeological structures, the ancient landscape has also been investigated. Khufu 's pyramid complex consists of a valley temple, now buried beneath the village of Nazlet el-Samman; diabase paving and nummulitic limestone walls have been found but

12920-414: The idea that the pyramids were built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. Disagreements arise over the feasibility of the different proposed methods by which the stones were conveyed and placed. In building the pyramids, the architects might have developed their techniques over time. They would select a site on a relatively flat area of bedrock—not sand—which provided

13056-559: The imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government." Other circumstances like epidemic diseases (cattle disease in the 1880s), floods and wars drove the economic downturn and increased Egypt's dependency on foreign debt even further. Local dissatisfaction with the Khedive and with European intrusion led to

13192-561: The king to fill positions that required the most skill. There are multiple burial-shafts and various unfinished shafts and tunnels located in the Giza complex that were discovered and mentioned prominently by Selim Hassan in his report Excavations at Giza 1933–1934 . He states: "Very few of the Saitic [referring to the Saite Period ] shafts have been thoroughly examined, for the reason that most of them are flooded." The Osiris Shaft

13328-546: The large Mastaba V which contained artifacts naming the 1st Dynasty pharaoh Djet . Other tombs date from the late Old Kingdom (5th and 6th Dynasty). The south section of the field contains several tombs dating from the Saite period and later. In 1990, tombs belonging to the pyramid workers were discovered alongside the pyramids, with an additional burial site found nearby in 2009. Although not mummified, they had been buried in mudbrick tombs with beer and bread to support them in

13464-524: The last bullet". The resulting battle saw the police station levelled and 43 Egyptian policemen killed together with 3 British soldiers. The Ismailia incident outraged Egypt. The next day, 26 January 1952 was "Black Saturday" , as the anti-British riot was known, that saw much of downtown Cairo which the Khedive Ismail the Magnificent had rebuilt in the style of Paris, burned down. Farouk blamed

13600-455: The military from one that convened under the tradition of the corvée to a great modernised army. He introduced conscription of the male peasantry in 19th century Egypt, and took a novel approach to create his great army, strengthening it with numbers and in skill. Education and training of the new soldiers became mandatory; the new concepts were furthermore enforced by isolation. The men were held in barracks to avoid distraction of their growth as

13736-554: The monarchy and the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953. Naguib was proclaimed as president, while Nasser was appointed as the new prime minister. Following the 1952 Revolution by the Free Officers Movement , the rule of Egypt passed to military hands and all political parties were banned. On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as

13872-606: The news. The Egyptian military then assumed the power to govern. Mohamed Hussein Tantawi , chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces , became the de facto interim head of state . On 13 February 2011, the military dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution. A constitutional referendum was held on 19 March 2011. On 28 November 2011, Egypt held its first parliamentary election since

14008-460: The night of 4 February 1942, British troops and tanks surrounded Abdeen Palace in Cairo and Lampson presented Farouk with an ultimatum . Farouk capitulated, and Nahhas formed a government shortly thereafter. Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 (although the British army maintained a military base in the area), but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after

14144-404: The pharaoh's spirit called his ka was believed to remain with his corpse. Proper care of the remains was necessary in order for the "former Pharaoh to perform his new duties as king of the dead". It is theorized the pyramid not only served as a tomb for the pharaoh, but also as a storage pit for various items he would need in the afterlife. The people of Ancient Egypt believed that death on Earth

14280-625: The president power to dissolve parliament and end judicial election monitoring. In 2009, Dr. Ali El Deen Hilal Dessouki, Media Secretary of the National Democratic Party ( NDP ), described Egypt as a " pharaonic " political system, and democracy as a "long-term goal". Dessouki also stated that "the real center of power in Egypt is the military". On 25 January 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak's government. On 11 February 2011, Mubarak resigned and fled Cairo. Jubilant celebrations broke out in Cairo's Tahrir Square at

14416-499: The previous regime had been in power. Turnout was high and there were no reports of major irregularities or violence. Mohamed Morsi , who was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood , was elected president on 24 June 2012. On 30 June 2012, Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's president. On 2 August 2012, Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil announced his 35-member cabinet comprising 28 newcomers, including four from

14552-537: The provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century. Egypt then became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, before its local ruler Muhammad Ali established modern Egypt as an autonomous Khedivate in 1867. The country was then occupied by the British Empire along with Sudan and gained independence in 1922 as a monarchy . Following the 1952 revolution , Egypt declared itself

14688-574: The pyramid of Khufu, the main cemetery is G 7000, which lies in the East Field located to the east of the main pyramid and next to the Queen's pyramids. These cemeteries around the pyramids were arranged along streets and avenues. Cemetery G 7000 was one of the earliest and contained tombs of wives, sons, and daughters of these 4th Dynasty rulers. On the other side of the pyramid in the West Field,

14824-401: The pyramids is a representation of the constellation Orion . The work of quarrying, moving, setting, and sculpting the huge amount of stone used to build the pyramids might have been accomplished by several thousand skilled workers, unskilled laborers and supporting workers. Bakers, carpenters, water carriers, and others were also needed for the project. Along with the methods used to construct

14960-474: The pyramids, there is also wide speculation regarding the exact number of workers needed for a building project of this magnitude. When Greek historian Herodotus visited Giza in 450 BC, he was told by Egyptian priests that "the Great Pyramid had taken 400,000 men 20 years to build, working in three-month shifts 100,000 men at a time." Evidence from the tombs indicates that a workforce of 10,000 laborers working in three-month shifts took around 30 years to build

15096-429: The recent find of Wadi el-Jarf papyri, especially the diary of inspector Merer , whose team was assigned to deliver the white limestone from Tura quarries to Giza. The journal was already published, as well as a popular account of the importance of this discovery. The pyramids of Giza and others are thought to have been constructed to house the remains of the deceased pharaohs who ruled Ancient Egypt . A portion of

15232-450: The refurbishment includes a new visitors' centre, an environmentally-friendly electric bus, a restaurant (the 9 Pyramids Lounge), as well as a cinema, public toilets, site-wide signage, food trucks, photo booths, and free Wi-Fi. The new facility is part of a wider plan to renovate the 4,500 year old site. Egypt Egypt ( Arabic : مصر Miṣr [mesˁr] , Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mɑsˤr] ), officially

15368-592: The region, especially the battles in North Africa against Italy and Germany. Its highest priorities were control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and for military connections with India and Australia. When the war began in September 1939, Egypt declared martial law and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. It broke diplomatic relations with Italy in 1940, but never declared war, even when

15504-638: The remains of a workers' village. The site is at the edge of the Western Desert , approximately 9 km (5.6 mi) west of the Nile River in the city of Giza , and about 13 km (8.1 mi) southwest of the city centre of Cairo . It forms the northernmost part of the 16,000 ha (160 km; 62 sq mi) Pyramid Fields of the Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site , inscribed in 1979. The pyramid fields include

15640-549: The royals' sons Wepemnofret and Hemiunu were buried in Cemetery G 1200 and Cemetery G 4000, respectively. These cemeteries were further expanded during the 5th and 6th Dynasties . The West Field is located to the west of Khufu's pyramid. It is divided into smaller areas such as the cemeteries referred to as the Abu Bakr Excavations (1949–1950, 1950–1951, 1952, and 1953), and several cemeteries named based on

15776-478: The site has not been excavated. The valley temple was connected to a causeway that was largely destroyed when the village was constructed. The causeway led to the Mortuary Temple of Khufu, which was connected to the pyramid. Of this temple, the basalt pavement is the only thing that remains. The king's pyramid has three smaller queen's pyramids associated with it and three boat pits. The boat pits contained

15912-512: The time of Menkaure include the mastabas of the royal chamberlain Khaemnefert, the King's son Khufudjedef (master of the royal largesse), and an official named Niankhre. The Central Field contains several burials of royal family members. The tombs range in date from the end of the 4th Dynasty to the 5th Dynasty or even later. Tombs dating from the Saite and later period were found near

16048-532: The title of King of Egypt ; despite being nominally independent, the Kingdom was still under British military occupation and the UK still had great influence over the state. The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. The nationalist Wafd Party won a landslide victory in the 1923–1924 election and Saad Zaghloul was appointed as the new prime minister. In 1936,

16184-564: The turn of the 20th century, the three largest pyramids on the Giza plateau were considered mostly exhausted by previous excavations, so the Western Cemetery and its collection of private mastaba tombs were thought to represent the richest unexcavated part of the plateau. George Reisner's wife, Mary, drew names from a hat to assign three long east-west plots of the necropolis among the Italian, German, and American missions. Schiaparelli

16320-571: The war sank into a stalemate. In mid May 1967, the Soviet Union issued warnings to Nasser of an impending Israeli attack on Syria. Although the chief of staff Mohamed Fawzi verified them as "baseless", Nasser took three successive steps that made the war virtually inevitable: on 14 May he deployed his troops in Sinai near the border with Israel, on 19 May he expelled the UN peacekeepers stationed in

16456-405: The work of shipwrights who built in a different tradition. The Khufu ship was put on public display in a specially built museum at the Giza pyramid complex in 1982; the museum was a small modern facility resting alongside the Great Pyramid. The first floor of the museum took the visitor through visuals, photographs, and writings on the process of excavating and restoring the boat. The ditch where

16592-473: Was also allowed to run for a third term in the next election in 2024. Under El-Sisi Egypt is said to have returned to authoritarianism. New constitutional reforms have been implemented, meaning strengthening the role of military and limiting the political opposition. The constitutional changes were accepted in a referendum in April 2019. In December 2020, final results of the parliamentary election confirmed

16728-542: Was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks , the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries. Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. After the French were defeated by the British, a three-way power struggle ensued between

16864-466: Was assigned the southernmost strip, Borchardt the center, and Reisner the northernmost. Rights to excavate the Pyramids were then also negotiated between Schiaparelli, Borchardt, and Reisner. Schiaparelli gained rights to excavate the Great Pyramid of Khufu along with its three associated queens' pyramids and most of its Eastern Cemetery. Borchardt received Khafre's pyramid, its causeway, the Sphinx, and

17000-537: Was borrowed into Coptic as " gyptios ", and from there into Arabic as " qubṭī ", back formed into " قبط " (" qubṭ "), whence English " Copt ". Prominent Ancient Greek historian and Geographer , Strabo , provided a folk etymology stating that " Αἴγυπτος " (Aigýptios) had originally evolved as a compound from " Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως " Aegaeou huptiōs , meaning " Below the Aegean ". " Miṣr " ( Arabic pronunciation: [misˤɾ] ; " مِصر ")

17136-498: Was built with a flat bottom composed of several planks, but no actual keel , with the planks and frames lashed together with Halfah grass , and has been reconstructed from 1,224 pieces which had been laid in a logical, disassembled order in the pit beside the pyramid. It measures 43.4 meters (142 ft) long and 5.9 metres (19 ft) wide. It was thus identified as the world's oldest intact ship and has been described as "a masterpiece of woodcraft" that could sail today if put into

17272-476: Was described as the largest violent battle between Islamists and their foes since the country's revolution. Mohamed Morsi offered a "national dialogue" with opposition leaders but refused to cancel the December 2012 constitutional referendum . On 3 July 2013, after a wave of public discontent with autocratic excesses of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government, the military removed Morsi from office, dissolved

17408-513: Was elected in 2014, has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian and responsible for perpetuating the country's poor human rights record . Islam is the official religion and Arabic is official language. Egypt is considered to be a regional power in the Middle East, North Africa and the Muslim world , and a middle power worldwide. It is a developing country . Egypt is

17544-449: Was founded c.  3150 BCE by King Menes , leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion , arts , language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.  2700–2200 BCE, which constructed many pyramids , most notably

17680-443: Was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate (1867–1914) in 1867. The Suez Canal , built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. Its construction was financed by European banks. Large sums also went to patronage and corruption. New taxes caused popular discontent. In 1875 Isma'il avoided bankruptcy by selling all Egypt's shares in the canal to the British government. Within three years this led to

17816-414: Was later built in the year 986 to grow to become the largest and richest city in the Arab caliphate , second only to Baghdad . The Abbasid period was marked by new taxations, and the Copts revolted again in the fourth year of Abbasid rule. At the beginning of the 9th century the practice of ruling Egypt through a governor was resumed under Abdallah ibn Tahir , who decided to reside at Baghdad , sending

17952-424: Was less than 25%. Election observers also alleged government interference in the election process. After the election, Mubarak imprisoned Ayman Nour , the runner-up. Human Rights Watch's 2006 report on Egypt detailed serious human rights violations under Mubarak's rule, including routine torture , arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. In 2007, Amnesty International released

18088-485: Was quarried across the Nile . These exterior blocks had to be carefully cut, transported by river barge to Giza, and dragged up ramps to the construction site. Only a few exterior blocks remain in place at the bottom of the Great Pyramid. During the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), people may have taken the rest away for building projects in the city of Cairo. To ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical,

18224-509: Was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Achaemenids again in 343 BCE after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II , was defeated in battle. This Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt , however, did not last long, as the Achaemenids were toppled several decades later by Alexander the Great . The Macedonian Greek general of Alexander, Ptolemy I Soter , founded

18360-414: Was the start of a journey to the next world. The embalmed body of the king was entombed underneath or within the pyramid to protect it and allow his transformation and ascension to the afterlife . The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids were astronomically oriented to the cardinal directions within a small fraction of a degree. According to the disputed Orion correlation theory , the arrangement of

18496-424: Was then buried for him to use in the afterlife. It contained no bodies, unlike northern European ship burials . The ship was one of two rediscovered in 1954 by Kamal el-Mallakh —undisturbed since it was sealed into a pit carved out of the Giza bedrock. It was built largely of Lebanon cedar wood, bending the planks in the "shell-first" construction technique, using unpegged tenons of Christ's thorn . The ship

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