Destination Guide To Egypt

GEOGRAPHY & BACKGROUND

Egypt is the centre of the Arab world, geographically, culturally and intellectually. It sits on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, with Libya to the west, Sudan to the south and Israel and the Red Sea to the East. Egypt forms the only land bridge between Africa and the remainder of the Eastern Hemisphere and controls the Suez Canal, the shortest sea link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The climate is mainly dry but along the Mediterranean coast there are winter rains. Temperatures are comfortable in the winter but summer temperatures are very high. Gebel Katarina at 2642m is Egypt's highest point.

The Nile Valley has hosted imperial powers since the Pharaonic era (beginning in the fourth millennium BC). Then came the Persians, the Alexandrian Greeks, the Romans and Byzantines. By 641AD the Muslim Arabs had conquered the whole country. Following the Abbasid caliphate, the Fatimids invaded in 969. It was the Fatimids who founded the city of Cairo (Al-Qahira – the Conqueror) and established Al-Azhar University. Subsequent rule by Salah Al-Din (Saladin) and the Mamluk sultans was ended by Ottoman occupation in 1517.

Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, and this effectively concluded Ottoman rule, even though the French were expelled by an Anglo-Ottoman alliance in 1801. In the ensuing power struggle, the Albanian Muhammad Ali triumphed. His dynasty oversaw westernisation of Egypt, the building of the Suez Canal, and colonisation of northern Sudan. In 1882, a British force occupied Cairo, and the British Consul-General became the effective ruler.

In December 1914 Egypt was declared a British protectorate with Hussein Kamil proclaimed the Sultan of Egypt. Led by Saad Zaghlul Pasha, there was a resurgence of Egyptian nationalism after World War I. In February 1922 Egypt was recognised as an independent sovereign state. An Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance was signed in 1936. It recognised Egypt's full independence and introduced a phased withdrawal of British forces. Despite this, and the installation of an Egyptian royal family descending from the sultans, the British military presence and influence remained, the final British troops leaving the Suez Canal zone in 1956.

Nationalism and defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war discredited the monarchy, and on 23 July 1952 the Free Officers seized power in a coup d'etat. The King abdicated. The following year, General Muhammad Neguib was proclaimed President of the new republic.

In 1954, Neguib was replaced as president by Gamal Abd Al-Nasser. A popular vote affirmed this in 1956. Under his presidency, Egypt recognised Sudanese independence; Israel, Britain and France launched a tripartite attack (the Suez War); Egypt and Syria enjoyed a short-lived union, the United Arab Republic (1958-61); and following the June 1967 War, the Sinai Peninsula was occupied by Israel. Yet Nasser was the object of popular adulation across the entire Arab world, and his death in 1970 sent shockwaves far beyond Egypt's borders.

Nasser's successor, Anwar Al-Sadat presided over the expulsion of Soviet military advisers (1972); the October 1973 War, which represented a partial triumph for Egypt; improved relations with the USA; economic infitah (opening up); and peace with Israel following US-brokered talks at Camp David. The latter prompted Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League and complicated Sadat's already ambivalent relations with domestic opponents: on 6 October 1981, militant Islamists assassinated him at a military parade.

Following the assassination of Sadat, Vice-President Hosni Mubarak was appointed president, a post he occupies to this day. Mubarak oversaw the return of Egypt to the Arab League in 1991, following over a decade of isolation. During this time, Egypt had joined the international coalition, which drove Iraqi occupation forces out of Kuwait, and since then, Mubarak's Egypt has played a pivotal role in the Middle East Peace Process.

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