Egypt enjoys a distinguished geographical location at the juncture of the ancient world continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. It has always been a place of inter-civilization reactivation between the East and the West as well as the North and the South. Egypt was also the crossing road of the heavenly religions of the world.

Egypt, commonly known as "The Motherland of the World", "Land of Civilizations" and "The Greatest Power in Human History", is reputed worldwide for its distinct 7,000-year-old record of civilization and immense wealth of knowledge.This has made Egypt a master and pioneer of science, arts, culture, architecture as well as almost all fields of human knowledge.

Amongst all civilizations and nations, Egypt has always maintained a unique position. Historically, Egypt is universally acknowledged as the world's most ancient state with a unified societal entity within its current geographical borders.

Through this area there runs the River Nile starting from the Great Lakes in the heart of Africa, through northern Sudan where the Ethiopian tributaries collecting rain water flows into its main course.

Running past the cataract area south of Aswan, it calms down, flowing smoothly down to its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt has been referred to as the "Gift of the Nile" due to the river that has nourished the desert land and sustained one of the most ancient and ever-lasting civilizations in the world.

The country has long captured the world's imagination as the magic land of the Pharaohs and their awe-inspiring Pyramids of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to survive.

Islam arrived with the Arab conquests in the 7th century and the country subsequently went on to become a major cultural and spiritual heart of the Muslim world. Its most famous landmark, Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, founded in the 10th century, has long been a source of great pride for Muslims. In keeping with a country that is no stranger to longevity, Al-Azhar's prestigious teaching institution, which attracts scholars from around the world, is considered to be the oldest university in existence.

Today, the overwhelming majority of the country's approximately 81 million population are Muslims. City horizons are dotted with the minarets of mosques and, every day, their speakers crackle with the evocative, almost ethereal, calls of the "muezzins" summoning the faithful to prayer. On Fridays, the special day of prayer, mosques are filled to bursting point and sidewalks and prayer mats spill out onto the sidewalks and streets. Yet, the population is not uniformly Muslim.

Christianity continues to thrive in Egypt, and a significant minority of the country belongs to the distinctive Egyptian church whose members are known as Copts. Egypt is 50 feet below sea level. Some important cities, towns, and places in Egypt are Cairo (the capital), Giza, Memphis, Thebes, Alexandria, Suez Canal, Abu Simbel, Sinai Peninsula, and Rosetta.

The highest point is Catharine Mountain that is 8,668 feet high. The lowest point is Qattara Depression and is 436 feet below sea level.

The Nile Delta is the only delta in Egypt and is 100 miles long and 155 miles wide.

It is in the shape of a triangle. There are 5 important oases in Egypt and they are all located in the Libyan Desert. They are the Farafrah, Bahriah, Dakhla, Kharijah, and the Siwah oases.The area of Egypt is 386, 662 square miles. The distance from east to west is 770 miles and from north to south is 675 miles.

There are no forests in but there are date palms and citrus groves. Papyrus plants grow only near the River Nile.

Egypt is divided into four major parts:

1. The Nile Valley and Delta

It extends from north of the valley to the Mediterranean Sea and is divided into Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: extending from Wadi Halfa to the south of Cairo and from North Cairo to the Mediterranean Sea. The River Nile in the north is divided into two branches, Dumiat and Rashid which embrace the highly fertile agricultural lands of the Delta.

2- The Western Desert

It extends from the Nile Valley in the East to the Libyan borders in the west, and from the Mediterranean in the north to Egypt's Southern borders. It is divided into:

• The Northern section includes the coastal plane, the northern plateau and the Great Depression, Natroun Valley and Baharia Oasis

• The Southern section includes Farafra, Kharga, Dakhla, and el-Owainat in the extreme south.

3- The Eastern Desert

Extends from the Nile Valley in the West to the Red Sea, Suez Gulf, and Suez Canal in the East, and from Lake Manzala on the Mediterranean in the North to Egypt's southern borders with Sudan in the south. The Eastern Desert is marked with the Eastern Mountains that extend along the Red Sea with peaks that rise to about 3000 feet above sea level. This desert is rich with natural resources including various ores such as gold, coal, and oil.

4- The Sinai Peninsula

Sinai is shaped like a triangle with its base at the Mediterranean in the North and its tip in the South at Ras Mohammed, the Gulf of Aqaba to the East and the Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal to the West. It is topographically divided into three main sections:

• The Southern section is an extremely tough terrain. It is composed of high rise Granite Mountains. Mount Catherine rises about 2640 meters above sea level, a matter that makes it the highest mountain top in Egypt .

• The Central Section is bounded by the Mediterranean to the North and the At-Teeh plateau to the south. It is a plain area with abundant water resources derived from rain water that flows from southern heights to the central plateau.

Both the Nile Valley and the Delta occupy about 33,000 km2, accounting to less than 4% of the total area of the country.

The Western Desert occupies an area of about 671,000 km2.

The Eastern Desert occupies about a quarter of the total area of Egypt, (some 225,000 km2).  The Sinai Peninsula occupies about 61,000 km2.

The Arab Republic of Egypt is located in the north-eastern corner of Africa and south-western Asia. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Palestine and Israel, on the south by Sudan, and on the west by Libya.

The total area of the Arab Republic of Egypt reaches nearly 1.002.000 square meters, while the populated area reaches 78990 km2 representing 7.8% of the total area

Location of Egypt:

Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula

Geographic coordinates: 27 00 N, 30 00 E

Map references: Africa

Area: Total: 1,001, 450 sq km

Land: 995, 450 sq km

Water: 6, 000 sq km

Area-comparatives:

slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico

Land boundaries:

Total: 2, 665 km

Border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Palestine 255 km, Libya 1,115 km, Sudan 1, 273 km.

Coastline: 2, 450 km

Maritime claims:

- Territorial sea: 12 nm

-Contiguous zone: 24 nm

-Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

-Continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Elevation extremes:
-lowest point : Qattara Depression 436 m

-highest point: Mount Catherine 2, 629 m

-Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead and zinc.
Land use:

-Arable land: 2.87%

-Permanent crops: 0.48%
-Other: 96.65% (2001)

Irrigated land: 33, 000 sq km (1998 est.)