EGYPT 2001
Introduction
Egypt is an ancient country. Egyptian prehistory has been traced by archeologists back to the 7th millennium CE, while records suggest that the legendary First Dynasty of Pharaonic Egypt began to reign in the 29th century BCE. In the subsequent millennia, Egypt played a towering role in world history as one of the earliest empires ever to form, developing a powerful army, an effective state, and vast complexes of stone temples, statues and the great pyramids. From the 1st millennium BCE on, though, Egypt became a province of other empires -- first the Persian, then the Hellenistic, then the Roman, then the Byzantine. In the 7th century, Egypt was conquered by the army of the Islamic Caliphate. From then on, Egypt came to prominence as one of the most populous and advanced Islamic lands -- Alexandria was the largest trading cities in the entire Mediterranean, while Cairo was perhaps the world centre of Islamic jurisprudence and culture, the latter both in its high and popular forms. After the 14th century, though, Egypt began to decline -- successive bouts of the Black Death reduced its population by more than half, while the 1521 incorporation of Egypt into the Ottoman Empire saw Egypt's profile in the world decline at the expense of Anatolia. By the time that Napoleon invaded Egypt with the hope of controlling the sea route to British India in 1798, Egypt was prostrate.
In 1805, the young Albanian military commander Mehmet Ali became viceroy of Egypt. Under his energetic rule, Egypt was brought into the modern era, with the modernization of agriculture, the establishment of modern factories with European technology and managers manufacturing everything from cloth to refined sugar to glass, and the development of a large and modern army. Although Mehmet Ali was kept from conquering Syria by the Great Powers of Europe, he did manage to create a prosperous and independent Egyptian state. By the end of the 19th century Egypt had become a moderately prosperous country and an important power in the Middle East. After the First World War, Egypt dominated the Middle East, between its renewed protectorate over the Hijaz, its satellite kingdom of Syria, and the compliant British and French mandates.
Now, early 21st-century Egypt is a First World country. The 71 million inhabitants of the Egyptian Imperial State enjoy perhaps the highest living standards in the world outside of Europe, South America, Japan, and the South Pacific, and is certainly the wealthiest country in the Middle East. Egyptian high-tech business conglomerates maintain a worldwide presence, while Egyptian popular culture is enormously popular throughout the Arab world and Egypt is the linchpin of the League of Nations' presence in the Middle East. At the same time, Egypt has remained in many ways a profoundly traditional society; conservative Islamic mores still reign after a fashion and motivate an outraged generation of elders to criticize the newly-liberal urban cultures of Cairo and Alexandria, while Egyptian pluriethnicity.is an unsettling fact for many native-born residents and the conservative political system is highly unpopular among the young.
Egypt is an exciting country. Cairo is one of Tripartite Alliance Earth's most impressive entertainment centres, as Egyptian music, literature, and film have achieved worldwide renown for their creative synthesis of Western styles with Egypt's own ancient traditions. Other Egyptian cities maintain their own distinctive local cultural traditions, while the stunning ancient architectural wonders and the sere desert are a must-sees for any visitor. Travellers in Egypt will never lack for activities.
Visiting Egypt
As a nexus of international commerce and tourism, Egypt's existence is practically predicated upon travellers. Accordingly, Egypt is signatory to most of the League of Nations agreements regarding free travel, and is also party to the Mediterranean Accords, which allow unhindered travel between the European Confederation, Egypt, Hijaz, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
Visitors should familiarize themselves with entry requirements, especially customs requirements, and be sure to check their visa status before entering. Egyptian customs restrict the entry of firearms and many drugs, and check arrivals and their belongings for these.
Egypt is a safe country for visitors.
Money
Prior to the Third World War, Egypt's domestic trade was done in the Egyptian dinar, with écus in international trade. In 1980, four Egyptian dinars were the equivalent of one écu, and two dinars were the equivalent of the United States dollar. As elsewhere, the Third World War precipitated a rapid collapse in the value of the Egyptian dinar against the stabler European écu First World currencies. After a difficult bout of inflation in the mid-1980's, the dinar stabilized in 1991 at a fixed rate of exchange of three Egyptian dinars to the écu.
As of 1 January 2001, the official exchange rate for the Egyptian dinar against the écu is 2.7 dinars to the écu. Banks and government exchanges in major cities and the north will convert foreign currencies to dinars automatically, extracting a 10% service charge.
Natural Environment
Climate
The climate of Egypt is characterized by a hot season from May to September and a cool season from November to March. Extreme temperatures during both seasons are moderated by the prevailing northern winds. In the coastal region average annual temperatures range from a maximum of 37º C to a minimum of 14º C, while in the area of Khartoum, the average annual temperature is 26º C. Wide variations of temperature occur in the deserts, ranging from a maximum of 46º C during daylight hours to a minimum of 6º C after sunset; during the winter, desert temperatures can drop to slightly below freezing.
Egypt has a desert climate. The most humid area in Egypt is located in the southern Sudanese provinces, where annual rainfall can be as high as 250 mm. The second-most humid area is the Mediterranean coast, where the average annual rainfall is about 200 mm. Outside of these areas, precipitation is sparse -- Cairo receives on average only about 29 mm of rain a year, and in many desert locations it may rain only once in several years.
Geography
Only one-fifth of the land area of Egypt is settled or under cultivation. The most extensively exploited area in Egypt consists of the valley and delta of the Nile and its tributaries, while parts of Egyptian Sudan, a number of desert oases, and land along the Suez Canal are also densely populated. The remaining 80% of the country consists of desert, including the Libyan Desert in the west, a part of the Sahara, and the Eastern Desert. Located in the Libyan Desert are several depressions with elevations below sea level, including the Qattara Depression, which has an area of some 18 000 square kilometers and reaches a depth of 133 m below sea level, the lowest point in Africa; also found here are the oases of Siwa, Kharijah, Bahríyah, Farafirah, and Dakhilah. Much of the Eastern Desert occupies a plateau that rises gradually east from the Nile Valley to elevations of about 600 m in the east and is broken along the Red Sea coast by jagged peaks as high as about 2 100 m above sea level. In the south is the Nubian Desert, an extensive region of dunes and sandy plains broken only by the Nile. The Sinai Peninsula consists of sandy desert in the north and rugged mountains in the south, with summits looming more than about 2 100 m above the Red Sea. Located in the Sinai Peninsula is Mount Catherine (Jabal Katrínah), which at 2 637 m is the highest elevation in Egypt.
The Nile is by far the largest river in Egypt; the next-largest rivers are the Nile's tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. From Khartoum, the Nile flows for 1 530 km to the Mediterranean Sea. Lake Aswan is a huge reservoir formed by the Aswan High Dam, 480 km long and 16 km across at its widest point. The Aswan High Dam has controlled the flooding of the Nile and provided industrial Egypt with the water that it needs, but it has also reduced the flow of the Nile downstream, causing the salt waters of the Mediterranean to erode land along the Nile delta.
South of a point near the town of Idfu, the Nile Valley is rarely more than 3 km wide. From Idfu to Cairo, the valley is about 23 km in width, with most of the arable portion on the western side. At Cairo the valley merges with the delta, a fan-shaped plain, the perimeter of which occupies about 250 km of the Mediterranean coastline. Silt deposited by the Rosetta, Damietta, and other branches of the Nile has made the Nile delta the most fertile region in all Egypt. A series of four shallow, brackish lakes extends along the seaward extremity of the delta. Another larger lake, Birkat Qarun, is situated inland in the desert north of the town of Al Fayyum.
Although Egypt has about 2850 km of coastline, two-thirds of which are on the Red Sea, indentations suitable as harbors are confined to the delta. The inland waterways of Egypt -- including the Nile, navigable throughout its course in the country, the approximately 1 900 km of shipping canals, and the more than 23 400 km of irrigation canals in the Nile delta -- are used extensively for transportation. Organized caravans of motor vehicles -- and occasionally even camels -- are employed in the desert. The Isthmus of Suez, which connects the Sinai Peninsula with the African mainland, is traversed from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez by the Suez Canal.
The People
Demography
According to the 2000 Egyptian census, the Egyptian Imperial State has a total population of 66.3 million people. Of this number, 90% live within the Nile Valley and delta. The Nile valley is the one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with the lower Nile valley from Lake Aswan to the Nile delta having a population density of roughly 1700 persons per square kilometer. The populated regions of the Nile valley south of Lake Aswan have a population density of roughly 200 persons per square kilometers, while the vast deserts are practically uninhabited save for the migratory Bedouin.
Since 1800, the Egyptian population has grown rapidly. At the beginning of the 19th century Egypt excluding the Sudan was estimated to have a total population of 3 million, while by 1850 Egypt including the Sudanese provinces had a total population of 7 million people. The growth rate accelerated throughout the last half of the 19th century, mostly through natural increase but also through some immigration from the Ottoman Empire and the Arabian peninsula. By 1900, Egypt had a total population of 12 million people, and the 1940 Egyptian census recorded a total Egyptian population of 37.1 million people. After that point, growth rates decreased rapidly as immigration from abroad practically ended and the birth rate dropped to replacement levels of fertility.
Unlike the rest of the Middle East, Egypt's population was not decimated by post-Third World War famine in the early 1980's. In fact, over the next decade and a half almost ten million immigrants from Egypt's less-favoured neighbours -- particularly Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, and the East African Community -- arrived. However, birthrates among Egyptian citizens dropped sharply, owing to the diffusion of contraceptive and post-War economic hardship. The total fertility rate of Egypt is now only 1.2 children per woman; unlike in western and northern Europe, this remarkably low fertility rate shows no sign of recovery to pre-War levels. Although there are still enough children born to Egyptians of childbearing age in order to maintain natural increase, absent a sharp increase in birthrates or renewed mass immigration the population of Egypt will peak at 80 million in 2030 and then begin declining. League of Nations population estimates are uncertain, but median population projections for the Egyptian population circa 2030 -- assuming an increase in the birth rate and 100 thousand immigrants per year -- range from 70 million to 95 million.
Indigenous minorities are small, and mostly assimilated. 5.7% of the Egyptian population -- a total of 3.8 million people -- are Coptic Christians, Arabophones who practice a variety of Orthodox Christianity and are prominent in Egyptian economic life. In the southern Sudanese provinces, there are various non-Arab populations, particularly Nubians, Beja, and Jamala, but the continuing urbanization of these peoples and the flooding of the Nubian homeland by Lake Aswan has hastened their assimilation. Approximately 1.1 million Bedouin seminomadic herders still live in the deserts of Egypt, eking out an existence through herding and trade. As well, 300 thousand Greeks, 200 thousand Armenians, and 150 thousand Jews (including 100 thousand Israeli Jews) also live in Egypt, concentrated primarily in Alexandria but with large populations elsewhere in the Nile delta and in Cairo.
From time immemorial, Egypt's wealth and geographic position has attracted large numbers of immigrants from Egypt's neighbouring countries in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Included in the total Egyptian population is a total of 10.7 million immigrants and their Egyptian-born offspring. Of these, 2.1 million are Syrian, 1.9 million are Yemeni, 1.6 million are from the East African Community, 1.3 million are Ethiopian, 1.1 million are Turkish, and 1.0 million are Hijazi. Smaller immigrant populations include the 400 thousand Palestinians, 350 thousand European Confederation citizens (including 170 thousand Algerian and Libyan Arabs) and 280 thousand Lebanese. Although the immigration of unskilled workers coming from countries that have not signed the Mediterranean Accords has been made illegal, an annual total of one hundred thousand illegal immigrants -- most from eastern Africa -- continue to cross into Egypt. This continuing clandestine immigration, along with the above-replacement fertility of immigrants, has caused the immigrant communities of Egypt to increase their share of the Egyptian population from 4.9% in 1981 to 16.1% in 2001, causing much concern among Egyptian nationalists. Although Muslim immigrants -- especially Muslim Arab immigrants -- are assimilating rapidly, the Christians and animists of Ethiopia and East Africa remain a group apart.
Culture
Despite two centuries of often relentless modernization, Egypt has managed to retain and develop a thriving Egyptian culture. Granted that global -- specifically European -- pop culture is enormously popular amongst Egypt's youth, most of the films watched, music listened to, and literature read is made by Egyptians or other Arabs. Cairo is perhaps the leading cultural centre of the Arab world, and Lebanese, Algerians, Moroccans, Palestinians and other Arabs have all made themselves famous in Cairo.
Save for the minor exception of the choral music of the Coptic Church -- said by some to have originated in the courts of the Pharaohs -- modern Egyptian music traces its roots from the Arab conquerors of Egypt. In traditional Arab music, different melodic modes exist, each possessing their own characteristic scales, rhythms, and melodic phrases, with music with vocal parts is further supplemented by poetic lyrics. In the mid-19th century, Egyptian music was further influenced by the trumpet bands and operas brought into Egypt by the khedives. The growth of pan-Arab and Egyptian nationalist sentiment encouraged many Egyptian composers to turn to Egyptian villages in search for new melodies, while the development of an indigenous music industry in the 1920's producing recorded music for sale on vinyl discs produced an explosion of popular music. Since the 1920's, Egyptian recording artists as various as the immensely popular improvisionational female singer Umm Khalthum (1904-1975), the critical working-class shaabi singers Ahmed Adeweyah and Shaaban Abd el-Rakim, and rural folk musicians such as the Upper Egyptian Omar Gharzawi, the Nubian Mohamed Mounir, and the Sudanese Mahjoub Sharif. Although some recent musicians have taken to hybridizing the French nouveau chanson with any number of specifically Egyptians or generally Arab genres, by and large the genres of pop music popular in the 1920's remain popular in the early 21st century. With budgets for promotion unequalled anywhere else in the Arab world, Egyptian popular music dominates listening tastes across the Middle East.
Egypt has also developed a popular 20th century literature, despite the proscription of novels identified as "obscene" by the government. Egyptian publishing firms produce masses of novels and magazines oriented towards the popular taste in Egypt and the wider Arab world, ranging from historical adventure stories to discreet romance novels to classical lyrical poetry. In 1988, Cairene native Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his chronicles of the lives of working-class Cairenes.
Although the Islamic ban on visual arts has limited their development among Muslims, even in the 20th century, nonetheless Egypt has managed to develop the largest film industry in the Arab world, ranking alongside the Argentine and Maharashtrian industries and behind only France. With financial support of the Imperial Film Board, Egyptian private and public film companies produce more than 90 films a year -- musicals, dramas, romances. Egypt also has an extensive network of theatres, puppet theatres, and the renowned Cairo Symphony Orchestra. It also has many aficionados of opera, which has a world-class facility in the Cairo Opera House, where Verdi's Aida was premiered in 1871.
Recently, the Egyptian middle classes have become enamoured of Egyptian traditions. Folk dancing, for instance, is performed by a half-dozen national dance groups. Egypt also maintains an extensive network of museums containing relics from across Egypt dating back as early as the 4th millennium BCE, of which the most notable is the National Museum of Egypt in Cairo.
The role of the Ministry of Culture in subsidizing (and regulating) these cultural activities cannot be underestimated. As Egyptian artists, musicians, writers, and performers were effectively limited to a local market of 110 million Arabs, the financial subsidies of the Ministry of Culture are essential for these people to earn a living wage. Financial necessity, along with anti-obscenity regulations, combined to limit the number of works deemed offensive to public morals. Contact with the ITA, though, and the overnight access of Egyptian workers to a potential market of billions of Arabs, may free workers in the creative arts from the dictates of the Ministry of Culture.
Religion
Islam is the official religion of Egypt, and 88% of Egyptians are Muslims. The majority of Egyptian Muslims are Sunni, but Cairo and Alexandria are home to more than a million Shi'ite Muslims. According to official Egyptian sources, the Coptic Orthodox church, a Christian denomination, has 3.8 million adherents and constitutes the largest religious minority at 5.7% of the Egyptian population. There are also 1.1 million Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, an estimated 700 thousand members of East African Christian denominations; 400 thousand Greek Orthodox, falling under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; 250 thousand members of Armenian churches; and 150 thousand Jews, equally divided between Sephardic Jews from Egypt, Yemen, and Jerusalem and Ashkenazic Jews from Israel.
Of the remaining 2.5% of the Egyptian population, numbering 1.7 million, 1.2 million identify themselves as non-religious, while the remaining population is mostly composed of East African animists.
Cities
According to the 2000 census, 79% of the Egyptian population lived in urban areas. Although Egyptian traditions are most visibly present in rural areas, the cities of early 21st-century Egypt are the legacy of an urban tradition more than four millennia old, dating back as far as the first settlements of Pharaonic Egypt. In order to enjoy Egypt in its entirely, one must visit Egypt's cities.
Cairo is the largest city and chief commercial, manufacturing, administrative, and cultural center of Egypt. With 10.6 million inhabitants as of 2000, Cairo is the sixth-largest city in the world. Manufacturing industries -- making everything from aircraft and motor vehicles to processed cotton goods and food products -- are concentrated in the south of metropolitan Cairo and in the industrial suburb of Heliopolis in the Eastern Desert. The Cairene population is concentrated on the eastern bank of the Nile and on the central island of Zamalik in the Nile, but new residential suburbs are emerging to the north of Cairo. Cairo is served by an international airport, situated approximately 24 kilometers to the northeast of the city; the Mehmet Ali train station is located near Tahrír Square in downtown Cairo. As the leading city of the Middle East, Cairo contains many cultural institutions, business establishments, governmental offices, universities -- most notably Al Azhar University, founded in 970 and the single most important and authoritative educational institution in all the Islamic world. Cairo has many hotels to serve the very large number of tourists attracted by the city's warm climate and numerous historical and cultural attractions. Egypt's long history is preserved in the city's numerous museum collections, most notable of which is the National Museum of Egypt which contains hundreds of thousands of works, including more than 2100 pieces from the collection of Tutankhamen. Cairo's rich cultural life is further enhanced by local theater, cinema, dance, and music, and marked by a vibrant community of journalists and fiction writers. While the city has maintained its leading international status within the Islamic world, Cairo's infrastructure is stressed by the rapid expansion of the Cairene population. Leaks in Cairo's pipes and sewers have caused the water table to rise, destabilizing the ground underneath the city, and causing a number of structures to collapse under their own weight. Pollution is a major problem in Cairo, but the Egyptian government has begun to clean up the city's environment.
Alexandria is the second-largest city and the largest seaport in Egypt, with home to 5.3 million people. Located on a ridge that separates Lake Maryot from the Mediterranean Sea, The city was founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, who planned it as both Egypt's major port city and as a centre for cross-cultural contact. The modern city is situated mainly on a peninsula reaching to and including the island of Pharos, and on the portion of the mainland immediately south of the eastern harbor. The modern city on the peninsula is a characteristically Egyptian town; the European quarter, home to most of Cairo's Armenian, Greek, Jewish, and European communities but with a large Arab majority, is on the mainland. More than 80 percent of the imports and exports of the country pass through the city, with the western harbour -- largest of Alexandria's two harbours -- handling most of this trade..
Giza -- also Al Jìzah -- is the third-largest city in Egypt and home to 3.8 million people. A southwestern suburb of Cairo, Giza is an administrative, cultural, and commercial center, with diverse manufactures that include motion pictures, chemicals, machinery, and cigarettes. The city has traditional Muslim districts, a sector of luxury apartment buildings along the river, and many foreign consulates and trade missions. Educational facilities include the University of Cairo at Giza; the Academy of the Arabic Language; and, the Institute of Arab Musics. The site of Giza has been continually inhabited since the time of the 4th Dynasty (circa 2680-2544 BC) of the ancient pharaohs. Famous landmarks located nearby include the Great Sphinx (2565 BC or earlier) and three of Egypt's most famous pyramids -- the Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, and the Khafre and Menkaure pyramids.
Khartoum is the chief city in Egyptian Sudan and the fourth-largest city of Egypt, with a total population of 1.6 million inhabitants. Located at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers, in the east central part of the country. The city was founded in 1821 as an Egyptian military post for captured territory in the Sudan. By the 1880's, Khartoum had grown into a flourishing commercial and trade center -- to this day, in fact, Khartoum is the economic focus of southern Egypt and a major connecting point on transport routes to points in sub-Saharan Africa. Much of Khartoum's trade is derived from river traffic on the Nile and from farms of the large Al Jazìrah (Gezira) irrigated area to the south. The limited manufacturing industries include printing, food processing, and textile and glass manufacturing. Khartoum is divided into three sections -- Old Khartoum on the point between the White Nile and the Blue Nile, Khartoum North across the Blue Nile, and Omdurman across the White Nile. The University of Khartoum, Cairo University Khartoum Branch, and a number of specialized technical schools are here, as is the Sudanese Ethnographical Museum.
Port Said is located in northeastern Egypt, a port on the Mediterranean Sea at the entrance to the Suez Canal, and home to 1.2 million people. The city is built on low, sandy ground between Lake Manzilah and the Mediterranean Sea. The principal occupations in Port Said include fishing and the manufacture of chemicals, processed food, and cigarettes. It also has a large export trade, notably in cotton and rice, and is a fueling station for ships traveling the canal route. It is also a summer resort. Port Said was established in 1859, when work on the Suez Canal began.
Suez -- also called as-Suways -- is a city and port in northeastern Egypt at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. Although Suez was important as a port since the 7th century, serving as the eastern terminus of a canal linking the Nile River and the Red Sea, the city's importance increased greatly after the Suez Canal opened in 1859. Now home to 900 thousand people, the city has two harbors, Port Ibrahím and Port Tawfíq, and extensive port facilities. Rail lines and modern highways connect the city with Cairo and Port Said. Suez has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries are linked to the Euro-Mediterranean pipeline network. Suez also a major way station for Muslim pilgrims traveling to and from Mecca.
The Egyptian Government
The Constitution of the Egyptian Imperial State defines Egypt as a unitary constitutional monarchy. Since Egypt has extended the right to vote to the population of citizens 21 years of age and older, and which possesses an elected parliament, it is usually classified as a democratic state. However, the centralization of political power in the executive branch of the Egyptian government and the weakness of the parliament makes Egypt's claim to democracy problematic.
Structure
Executive power is formally vested in the reigning Khedive of Egypt, who is defined by customary law as the senior male member of the dynasty founded by Mehmet Ali in 1805, and in Khedive's Vizier, or Prime Minister. Constitutional reforms in 1953 established the Egyptian Parliament as a legislative body possessing significant powers, including the ability to propose, accept, and veto laws with a two-thirds majority in both chambers. The Vizier appoints a cabinet following the request of the Khedive; the appointees can be vetoed by the Parliament only if they occupy non-vital ministerial positions, and only if three-quarters of parliamentarians in both houses vote against the candidate.
Legislative power is vested in the bicameral parliament, which includes a National Assembly including 213 representatives selected by direct elections in geographically-defined ridings and the Vizier, and a Senate with 50 members appointed by the Khedive at the recommendation of the Vizier. All members of the National Assembly serve a four-year term; all Senators are appointed for life. The National Assembly is the only body that can propose legislation, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority of parliamentarians. This draft legislation then proceeds to the Senate, whose members must likewise vote in a simple majority in order for the proposed law to pass the second stage. Finally, legislation must be signed by the Vizier and the Khedive in order for it to pass fully into law. This system of government has been criticized by opposition parties because of the disproportionate power of the conservative Senate, and the two-thirds-majority requirement for legislation to pass in the relatively liberal National Assembly.
The highest court in Egypt is the Supreme Court, consisting of nine justices. Below the Supreme Court are six appellate courts, located in Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Khartoum, and Port Said. There are a further 117 district courts, distributed evenly across Egypt; these have jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases of the first instance. As of January of 2001, the Egyptian government has not accepted the authority of the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, as a court of final appeal.
Egypt barely qualifies as a democracy. Apart from the weakness of the directly-elected National Assembly and the strength of the Senate, the Vizier, and the Khedive, some relatively left-wing opposition complain of police harassment of their membership. National elections are hotly contested, but the pro-government Egyptian National Party and the Liberal Party have taken more than 60% of the vote in all elections since 1954, and have consistently formed coalition governments and provided the Khedive from their ranks during all that time. The various opposition parties -- the Pan-Arab Union Party, the Socialist Party, the Communalist Party, and the new Muslim Democratic Party -- have remained excluded from power owing to their internal dissensions and their inability to form coalitions amongst themselves.
Provincial Governments
Egypt is divided into 30 governorates. The governorates of Egypt are purely creations for the central government that serve only to carry out the policies of the central government on the local level. These provinces are, in alphabetical order:
The Egyptian Military
The Egyptian Imperial Armed Forces make up one of the most powerful national militaries on Tripartite Alliance Earth, with a total numerical strength of 680 000 circa January of 2001. Of these, 480 000 serve in the army, 160 000 in the air force, 50 000 in the navy, and 10 000 in the strategic forces. On reaching 18 years of age, all males holding Egyptian citizenship resident in Egypt are conscripted for 18 months of military service. Further, if circumstances require any male between 18 and 30 years of age can be conscripted for another period of 12 months above and beyond the 18-month period of conscription mandatory for all Egyptian males.
Egypt's armed forces are primarily oriented towards the defense of the national territory of Egypt and Hijaz, with secondary orientations towards the defense of the Mediterranean basin and the Levant. Despite doubts about the effectiveness of conscript soldiers, conscription is likely to remain a feature of the Egyptian military for some time to come. Egyptian military doctrine calls for the creation of a technologically-advanced military that will be able to defeat comparably-sized forces in the Middle East, northern Africa, and southeastern Europe using local and Egyptian bases of operation.
Since 1989 Egypt has possessed the ability to make long-range missiles, in 2000 using the Asyut-3 missile to launch an Egyptian civilian communications satellite into orbit, while in 1998, Egypt purchased its first aircraft carrier, the Alexandria. In addition, Egypt possesses the technological ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, although it is treaty-bound from making such arms. This, along with Egypt's recent mutual-defense treaties with the Levantine states and Saudia, is a signal of Egypt's eventual aim of becoming a global military power under the aegis of the League.
Egyptian Foreign Relations
Egypt is the most powerful Arab country in the world, and the only Islamic state in the world to have permanent membership on the League Supreme Council. Egypt's prominence in world affairs ensures that most of the minor countries of the world -- and all of Egypt's neighbours and the Great Powers -- maintain a diplomatic presence in the country.
Regional
Central Arabia: Until the revolution of August 2001, Egypt was content with managing its relationship with its reactionary Saudi client state so as to ensure Saudia's survival as a source of oil, as a major market for Egyptian manufactures, and as a strategic outpost. While the Egyptian government is not overly concerned with the fate of the al-Saud dynasty, it is quite worried that a hostile Central Arabian government could reject Egyptian influence and align with Iran. (Egyptian conservatives are not concerned about the example of the Saudian revolution for Egyptians, since they recognize that the Egyptian regime is fundamentally more popular than its Saudi counterpart ever was.) Egypt still maintains an embassy in Riyadh, while Saudia maintains an embassy in Cairo; Egyptian diplomats are trying to allay Central Arabian fears of Egyptian subversion, not without substantial success.
East African Community: The Egyptian relationship with the East African confederation has only recently become important, as East Africans have begun to immigrate in large numbers into Egypt, and as East Africa has begun to experience the beginnings of an economic renaissance. Although the Community and its member-states remain somewhat suspicious about the motives of their powerful and overbearing neighbour to the north, Egyptian patience has yielded diplomatic breakthroughs in the past few years. Egypt maintains fully-accredited embassies in the capitals of each of the member-states of the East African Community and a mission to the Community government in Zanzibar, while the Community likewise maintains diplomatic posts on behalf of its member-states in the major cities of Egypt.
Ethiopia: After Italy withdrew its protectorate over Ethiopia in 1967, the Egyptian government quickly supplanted most of Italy's former influence over the Amharic kingdom. The extreme poverty and backwardness of Ethiopia continues to be a disappointment to Egyptians, while many Egyptians look with alarm upon the influx of Ethiopian Christian illegal immigrants and worry that Ethiopia might try to dam the Blue Nile -- the source of most of Egypt's water. These worries continue to drive Egypt's policy towards Ethiopia, which is constructed with the sole aim of limiting any Ethiopian threat to Egyptian interests. The Ethiopian government, for its part, resents the prejudice against Ethiopian nationals in Egypt and Egyptian paternalism. In order to limit the numbers of legal immigrants from Ethiopia, Egypt maintains only an embassy in Addis Ababa, while Ethiopia maintains in addition to its Cairo embassy consulates in Khartoum and Alexandria.
European Confederation: Egyptians have a love/hate relationship with Europe. On the one hand, the Confederation is Egypt's single largest export market and source of foreign investment, and the old Franco-Egyptian entente colours Egypt's relationship with Europe. On the other, Egypt's natural fear of its immensely larger and wealthier neighbour, and popular resentment of the colonization of Arab lands by various European countries, is also a factor. Despite this, the necessities of trade and politics ensure that Egypt and the European Confederation maintain a close relationship under the Mediterranean Accords. In addition to its Cairo embassy, the Confederation maintains consulates in Alexandria and Khartoum, and trade offices in Giza, Heliopolis, and Port Said. Egypt also maintains close bilateral relationships with many of the Confederation's member-states, particularly Libya, Greece, Algeria, the Italian states, and France.
Hijaz: The continuing custodianship of Egypt over the Holy Cities of Islam remains a source of pride among Egyptians, and few people -- if any -- question the union of Hijaz with Egypt under the Egyptian crown. However, official concern at the costs of subsidizing the Hijazi economy and military, popular anger in Egypt with the recent mass immigration of Hijazis, and Hijazi resentment of Egypt's domination of every aspect of their lives and society, will produce some turmoil in the years ahead. Egypt maintains an extensive embassy in Jeddah and consulates in both Mecca and Medina, while Hijaz maintains an equally large embassy in Cairo and consulates and trade offices in cities located along the pilgrimage routes from Africa.
Islamic League: The politicized radical Islam of the Iranian-led Islamic League is anathema to Egyptian officialdom. Although Egypt has continued the profitable pre-war trade in manufactured goods and oil-field equipment with the Islamic League states, it has also sought to limit any contact between Egyptian citizens and their Islamic League counterparts. To this end, Egypt maintains embassies only in Tehran and Baghdad, and trade offices in Abu Dhabi, Manama, and Doha.
Israel: Egyptian-Israeli relations remain marked to this day by an undercurrent of distaste at the implantation of a Jewish enclave on the soil of sacred Palestine. Despite this, as political partners in the Mediterranean Accord and trading partners, Egypt and Israel maintain a reasonably polite relationship. Egypt maintains an embassy in Tel Aviv-Yafo, while Israel maintains an embassy in Cairo along with consulates in Alexandria, Port Said, and Suez.
Jerusalem: The official status of the holy city of Jerusalem as a League free city suits the Egyptian government and most Egyptians, who prefer the internationalization of that city to the possibility of Jerusalem falling under the control of one or another of its lesser neighbours. Egypt maintains an extensive presence in Jerusalem via its embassy there; Jerusalem's relationship with Egypt is conducted through the medium of the League of Nations.
Lebanon: Another treaty partner of Egypt in the Mediterranean Accords, the Egyptian-Lebanese relationship is considerably warmer than the Egyptian-Israeli relationship. Lebanese businessmen see in Egypt a large and prosperous if occasionally suffocating market and protector, while Egyptians appreciate the privacy and security of Lebanese bank accounts and the various scenic and cultural attractions of Lebanon. Egypt maintains an embassy in Beirut, while Lebanon maintains an embassy in Cairo and trade offices in Alexandria and Suez.
Palestine: Palestine's republican parliamentary democracy is viewed by Egyptian conservatives as a bizarre affectation of an overly Westernized population. Despite the differing political systems of the two countries, though, Egypt and Palestine maintain a friendly relationship marked by extensive trading and migration under the Mediterranean Accords. Egypt maintains an embassy in Ramallah, while Palestine maintains an embassy in Cairo and consulates in Port Said and Suez.
Syria: Egyptian-Syrian relations since the First World War have been intimate by necessity -- the foundation of Syria as an independent kingdom under the younger brother of the reigning Egyptian khedive could not have failed to do otherwise. Since then, Egypt's sponsorship of Syria despite that kingdom's manifest weaknesses has culminated in the elevation of Syria as a signatory partner of the Mediterranean Accords, and in modest Syrian prosperity. Egypt maintains an embassy in Damascus, and consulates in Latakia and Amman. The resentment of many Syrians at the growing Egyptian presence in their country has not -- as of yet -- influenced bilateral relations.
Turkey: Egyptian-Turkish relations remain distant and vaguely hostile, owing to Turkish distrust of Egyptian motives in the Middle East and Egyptian contempt at Turkey's manifest instability and poverty. In recent years, Egyptian-Turkish relations have been further claimed by Turkish claims that the two million-odd Turkish immigrants in Egypt are mistreated. A minimal bilateral diplomatic relationship is maintained, limited to embassies in the capital of the other state.
Non-Regional
Argentina: The Egyptian-Argentine relationship is friendly. The lingering distrust applied to Europe does not apply to Argentina, which has the advantages of being distant from Egypt and of never attempting to subjugate any part of the Arab world. The two countries engage in little trade, but maintain a formal political relationship in keeping with their common status as permanent members of the Supreme Council of the League of Nations. Egypt maintains a large embassy in Buenos Aires and consulates in several Argentine provincial cities, while Argentina maintains a like diplomatic presence in Cairo and the other major cities of Egypt.
Australia: The Commonwealth of Australia is respected by Egyptians as a prosperous and stable country. Despite Australia's liberal parliamentary politics, in the estimation of the Egyptian government, the Egyptian government favours Australia's elevation to permanent membership of the League Supreme Council when the next round of expansion occurs in a decade's time. Although Australia and Egypt have relatively few direct relations, bilateral relations are friendly.
Brazil: Brazil is respected by many Egyptians as a prosperous and stable country that has rejected European-style imperialism. The presence of an Egyptian-Brazilian community of a half-million people has likewise cemented Brazilian-Egyptian relations. The relative strength of Brazilian religion contributes to Brazil's real-life image as a fair trading partner, while Brazil's sponsorship of Egyptian accession to permanent membership on the League Supreme Council is still appreciated. Egypt maintains an extensive diplomatic presence in Brazil, which likewise reciprocates.
Japan: In the century that Egypt and Japan have maintained direct diplomatic relations, Egyptian attitudes towards Japan have changed greatly. These have ranged from identifications of Japan as an imperialistic nation -- during the Pacific War and the 1980's -- to an identification of Japan as, like Egypt, a nation opposed to Western domination of the entire world. The two countries have collaborated in the past in ensuring the continued flow of oil and natural gas from the Islamic League, while bilateral trade relations have grown rapidly over the past decade. Egypt maintains its embassy in Tokyô and consulates in Osaka and Nagasaki, while Japan possesses a large embassy in Cairo.
Korea: Almost from the moment that Korea regained its independence, the Korean government dispatched scholars of all types to Egypt in order to find out just how the House of Mehmet Ali managed to place Egypt on equal footing with foreign imperialists. Even though, by the standard of conservative Egyptians, the Koreans are pagans, Egyptians were flattered by Korean emulation, and were content to witness Korea's success. Since the 1960's, in fact, Egypt has found common ground with Korea, based upon their similar nationalistic, conservative, and monarchical backgrounds. In the 1980's, the two powers cooperated in ensuring the League's adoption for the Trade and Migration Pacts, while Egypt supported the Korean application for permanent membership on the Supreme Council of the League. Despite this close political relationship, there is little Korean-Egyptian trade. Egypt maintains its embassy in Seoul, and consulates in Pusan, Taegu, and P'yôngyang, while Korea maintains an embassy in Cairo.
League of Nations: When Egypt acceded to permanent membership of the Supreme Council in 1977, the Egyptian people and government came to identify closely with the established international order. Since the Third World War, Egypt and the League cooperated extensively based on a common desire to limit Iranian domination of the Persian Gulf area, culminating in the Persian Gulf War of 1984-5. The League sees in Egypt a welcome Muslim and Arab voice in its councils, and maintains an extensive presence in Egypt through its various secretariats and agencies.
Mexico: Egypt has been heartened by the economic success of Mexico, just as it has with Korea, but Mexico's political and cultural liberalism -- and particularly Mexico's anti-clericalism -- appalls Egyptians. Despite this, and the lack of any substantial Egyptian-Mexican trade, Egypt has supported Mexican ambitions for a greater role in North America and the wider world. Egypt maintains an embassy in Mexico City, while Mexico maintains its Middle Eastern diplomatic network from its embassy in Cairo.
South Africa: The Egyptian government does not place a particularly high priority upon relations with South Africa, despite Gauteng's enthusiasm and the common policies of the two governments in regards to economic development and democratization of the League of Nations. Although the Egyptian government and Egyptians appreciate South African support for Egyptian policy initiatives, conservatives are worried by South Africa's democratic radicalism, while nationalists dislike South African proposals for an expensive joint effort in promoting the economic development of Africa. Bilateral relations are polite, then, if not overly intimate.
Economy
Uniquely in the Middle East, Egypt possesses a diversified modern industrial and post-industrial economy that firmly places Egypt in the lower ranks of the First World. This industrialization is the culmination of the desires of Mehmet Ali and his successors to promote the creation of a modern industrial base despite British desires to reduce the country to a simple market. By the beginning of the First World War, Egypt had emerged as an industrial power of roughly the same order of magnitude as Spain. In the Second World War, Egypt's distance from the battlefields allowed Egyptian industrialists and landowners alike to prosper.
In the quarante glorieuses, Egypt blossomed into a relatively advanced industrial economy with First World standards of living, thanks to the consistency of the Egyptian government in promoting economic expansion and meeting the basic health and educational needs of the general Egyptian population. From 1950 until 1980, the Egyptian economy sustained an average growth rate of 7% per annum (1950-1980). Had this growth continued to the present, by now the Egyptian economy would produce roughly as much per capita as any of the leading European or South American economies. However, the Third World War devastated the Egyptian economy; only now, in 2001, is Egypt expected to regain its pre-War levels of economic output per capita. Today, Egypt faces the problems of a relatively backward industrial base and a relatively inefficient education system.
Agriculture
Over the 20th century, successive economic shocks have destroyed the once-numerous fellahin class of peasantry in the Nile valley, transforming the Egyptian agricultural system into one where great landowners employ all of the latest agricultural technologies and hire seasonal workers in order to extract the maximum profit. Only 10% of the Egyptian population is engaged in crop farming, and only a fifth of the agricultural workforce still operates independent farms. Government programs have expanded arable areas through reclamation, irrigation -- notably since the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1955 -- and the use of advanced technology, such as fertilizers and mechanized equipment. Now, the yields of Egyptian farmlands are now among the highest in the world. Egypt is one of the world's leading producers of long-fibered cotton, producing more than a half-million metric tons of cotton lint. Warm weather and plentiful water permit as many as three crops a year, giving Egypt abundant agricultural yields. In the late 1990's Egypt's other major crops included rice, tomatoes, wheat, sorghum, peanuts, dates, maize, sugarcane, potatoes, and oranges, along with a wide variety of other vegetables and fruits.
Egypt is also a leading producer of livestock. Some of the more notable livestock produced in the late 1990's included 25 million cattle, 35 million sheep, 26 million goats, 1.9 million camels, and 93 million poultry. Here, the Bedouin nomads play a major role in the raising and export of livestock in the course of their herding activities.
The fisheries employ less than 1% of the Egyptian population. Still, the annual catch in the late 1990's amounted to approximately 417 000 metric tons. Among the most productive areas are the shallow deltaic lakes, Birkat Qarun, and the Red Sea, while a fishing industry is being developed in Lake Nasser. However, the formerly productive sardine fisheries along the Mediterranean coast have been greatly depleted since the construction of the Aswan High Dam, and environmentalists are concerns that overfishing may destroy fishstocks elsewhere in Egypt's territorial waters.
Manufacturing and Services
Although Egypt developed basic modern industries in the 19th century, it wasn't until the First World War that Egyptian industries experienced their first major period of industrial growth, as the Egyptian economy had to satisfy domestic demand without recourse to European exports. After a slump in the interwar period, Egypt experienced a second major economic boom, one that continued into the quarante glorieuses. During the Second World War Egypt's industrial base was greatly expanded. By the late 1990's the gross value of manufacturing and mining exceeded 210 thousand million écus per year, making Egypt one of the largest industrial powers in the world after Europe, Brazil, Japan, and Argentina. The Egyptian industrial sector manufactures a diverse range of products and employes 49% of the Egyptian labour force. Some important Egyptian products include yarns and fabrics, refined sugar, electronic equipment, chemicals and fertilizers, and motor vehicles. Most industrial activity is centered around Cairo and Alexandria. The service sector is also a major element of the Egyptian economy, and is perhaps the fastest-growing sector.
Mining and Petrochemicals
Crude petroleum is the most important mineral product of Egypt. 39.7 million barrels of oil were produced annually in the early 1960's. As a result of the discovery in the 1950's and 1960's of large new fields in the Al Alamayn and Gulf of Suez areas, annual production of crude petroleum increased to approximately 312.2 million barrels in the early 1980's. Proven reserves stood at 5.8 billion barrels in 1992 as Egypt renewed exploration. The government also encourages natural gas production to supply domestic energy needs, with annual extraction in the late 1990's of 8.7 billion cubic metres. Even though the Third World War precipitated a sharp decline in global oil prices, crude petroleum and petroleum products accounted for 15 percent of export earnings in the late 1990's.
Other important products of the mining industry in the late 1990's included phosphate rock, iron ore, and salt. Uranium ore began to be mined near Aswan in 1991, while in the Sudanese provinces small amounts of chromium, manganese, and mica are produced.
Transportation
Egypt has approximately 14 600 km of railroads, owned by the state and by private companies alike. The principal line links Khartoum and points north in the Nile Valley to Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. The inland waterways of Egypt -- including the Nile, navigable throughout its course, the approximately 1900 km of shipping canals, and the more than 23 400 km of irrigation canals in the Nile delta -- are used extensively for transportation. Caravan of motor vehicles -- and occasionally, even camels -- are employed in the desert.
Two highways connect Cairo with Alexandria. Other highways connect Cairo to Port Said, Suez, Khartoum, and Al Fayyum, with road links to points in East Africa and Ethiopia. In all, Egypt has about 49 000 km of road, of which about 28 000 km are modern highways. A large variety of domestic and international airlines provide regular services between Cairo and Alexandria and major world centers. Egypt has about 230 airfields. The major port is Alexandria, followed by Port Said and Suez, all of which are served by numerous shipping companies. The Suez Canal produces substantial annual toll revenues; in the late 1990's about 29 000 vessels used the canal each year.
Problems
By the standards of most of Egypt's neighbours, Egypt is an immense success, and indeed there has been a vast improvement in Egyptian life over the past two centuries. That is not to say that Egypt faces no problems -- indeed, some of its problems threaten to damage Egypt's long-term future.
The most immediately pressing issue is Egypt's relative backwardness and its slow recovery from the Third World War. The Third World War depressed domestic consumption, delayed the replacement of out-of-date equipment and managerial techniques, and left the Egyptian economy in 2001 relatively worse off next to the leading world economies than it was in 1980. It is possible for the Egyptian economy to retool, but in order to do that Egyptian businesses and individuals will have to go deeply into debt. The worst-case scenario of Egypt's relapse into Third World-style poverty is almost impossible. It isn't impossible, though, that the Egyptian economy might continue its stagnation indefinitely.
Egypt is also faced with pressing demographic problems. The below-replacement fertility of Egyptians is considered a major problem by Egyptian traditionalists, who fear the disintegration of Egypt's traditional familialism. This worsens the concern of the same people at the high volume of immigration over the past two decades and the prospect of its continuation into the future. Ideally, traditionalists would prefer that the fertility rates of Egyptians would rise and foreign immigration from outside the area of the Mediterranean Accords would be limited, but to achieve these goals Egypt would not only have radically alter its culture to boost fertility rates but it would have to somehow mastermind rapid economic growth in eastern Africa. Egypt will be faced with difficult choices on these issues.
Finally, the future of the Egyptian political system and of Egyptian culture is open to question. Few Egyptians want a republican revolution, or a culture as libertine as the European. A growing number of young Egyptians do want to strengthen the powers of the National Assembly in order to make Egypt a truly democratic society, one liberal enough to allow them to enjoy greater personal and sexual freedom. Whatever Egyptian officialdom decides, Egypt's future identity will be profoundly affected.