Discover Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa , with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East . The great majority of its estimated 82 million live near the banks of the Nile River , in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mile).

One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods. The name is realized as kīmi and kīməin the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Χημία (Khēmía).

The English name " Egypt " came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word Aígyptos . The adjective aigýpti, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as Agyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into qubṭ, whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah , meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which Aígyptos had evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptiōs , meaning "below the Aegean ".

At 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi), Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is approximately the same size as all of Central America , twice the size of France , four times the size of the United Kingdom , and the combined size of the US states of Texas and California .

Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe , the Middle East and other African countries. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt 's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt