Egypt

The oldest continuous political unit on earth, and a country that is really a river. Ninety-five per cent of Egyptians live on about five per cent of the land, along the Nile and its delta, and that concentration has made centralised government both possible and necessary since Narmer unified upper and lower Egypt around 3100 BCE. Pharaonic rule ran for three thousand years before Persians, Greeks under the Ptolemies, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Mamluks and Ottomans each took it in turn - Egypt was governed by outsiders almost continuously from 525 BCE until the twentieth century, while absorbing them. Arab conquest in 641 brought the language and religion it has now. Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman officer, seized power in 1805 and built a modern army and cotton economy; the debts of his successors, incurred partly building the Suez Canal, brought British occupation in 1882. Nominal independence came in 1922 and real independence with Nasser's officers in 1952, followed by the Suez crisis of 1956, defeat in 1967, the crossing of 1973 and the peace with Israel in 1979 that cost Sadat his life. The Aswan High Dam ended the annual flood the country had farmed for millennia. Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Arab world. The country has over a hundred million people. Arabic is official and Egyptian Arabic is the most widely understood dialect in the region. The Suez Canal carries around twelve per cent of world trade. Seven of its sites are World Heritage listed. Al-Azhar in Cairo has taught since 970 and is among the oldest universities in continuous operation.

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