Egypt is the oldest tourist attraction in the world. The interest in visiting Egyptian monuments began with the ancient Greeks and Romans who came to see the mighty pyramids and colossi of Memnon in Thebes. During the colonial era, the French and British looted Egypt's treasures to fill their museums. This made traveling intellectuals aware and it soon turned into a real flood of tourists.
Today, the greatest Egyptian attractions include not only the ancient Egyptian tombs lying in the Nile Valley and traditional Muslim bazaars (such as the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar), mosques and Arab madrassas in Cairo. People also want to see fantastic coral reefs, exotic fish, desert dunes, ancient fortresses, monasteries and prehistoric rock paintings on their trip to Egypt.
Below are the top 10 facts about modern Egypt that you may not know:
-
Egypt is situated on two continents: Africa and Asia (Sinai). The Sinai Peninsula, located in the west of the country, geologically belongs to Africa, but geographically belongs to Asia.
Book Your Luxury Egypt Tour
-
Egypt is the third most populous country in Africa, right after Nigeria and Ethiopia. Currently, over 104 million people live in Egypt.
-
Egypt is the most highly populated Arab country and the 15th most populous country in the world, although most of its territory is uninhabited. As much as 99% of the population lives in 5.5% of the country's area. These are the areas of the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta.
-
The Suez Canal is in Egypt and this connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. Before the opening of the canal, anyone who wanted to cross the Arabian Sea to Europe had to cross Africa. The Suez Canal shortened this route by almost 9,000 kilometers (5,000 nautical miles).
-
Egypt covers an area of 1,002,450 km2 in the driest and arid corner of Africa and Asia.
-
Since 1952, Egypt has been a republic. The country is divided into 27 governorates known as muhafza. Most of them are located along the Nile and in the delta of the Nile River.
-
Egypt is the largest producer of dates. 17% of the world's date production comes from Egypt. The countries importing the most Egyptian dates are Morocco, Indonesia and Malaysia.
-
The currency of Egypt is the Egyptian pound, the usual abbreviation of which is LE, for French livre égyptienne. The pound is divided into 100 piastres (PT). Currently, there are banknotes of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 Egyptian pounds in circulation, as well as coins of 1 LE and 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 PT (piastres).
-
The capital city of Egypt is Cairo. It is one of the largest cities in Africa. Some sources say that it is the largest city in Africa, others say that it is second only to Lagos in Nigeria. Over 25 million people live in the Cairo agglomeration and this number is constantly increasing. A quarter of the country's population lives in Cairo and the city is one of the ten most populated cities in the world.
-
Cairo is one of only two cities in Africa to have a metro. The second city is Algiers in Algeria. Cairo has three metro lines with a total of 74 stations and the Cairo Metro is constantly being expanded. More than 4 million people use the metro every day and the first car on each train is reserved for women.
We hope you found the above information interesting and it encourages you to visit Egypt. Check out our Egypt tours and start planning your trip to Egypt today.
