Egypt sits in the northeast corner of Africa, and through the Sinai Peninsula it reaches into Asia. Most of the country is desert, so nearly everyone lives along the narrow green valley of the Nile and in its delta, where the river fans out before it reaches the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, whose coral reefs draw divers from all over the world.
Ancient Egypt was united about 3100 BC, and for close to three thousand years it was ruled by pharaohs who built pyramids, temples and richly painted tombs. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, the French and the British followed. Egypt was an early centre of Christianity and became mainly Muslim in the centuries after the Arab conquest of the 600s, and Coptic Christians remain a large community today.
Memories fade faster than photos. Ask these over a meal or a phone call, and write the answers down.
Farming villages grew up along the Nile thousands of years ago, and about 3100 BC Upper and Lower Egypt were joined into one kingdom. The dates of the early pharaohs are approximate, and scholars differ by decades or more. After the pharaohs came Persian, Greek and Roman rule, then the Arab conquest, Cairo's great medieval dynasties, the Ottomans, and British control, before Egypt became independent in 1922 and a republic after the revolution of 1952.
About 3100 BC a king from the south, usually identified as Narmer and remembered in later tradition as Menes, brought the Nile Valley (Upper Egypt) and the delta (Lower Egypt) under one ruler. Pharaohs kept the title 'Lord of the Two Lands' for three thousand years.
Ramesses II, often called Ramesses the Great, began a reign of about 66 years in around 1279 BC. He built on a huge scale, including the temples of Abu Simbel and parts of Karnak, and he is the Ozymandias of the Greek writers.
After Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, invaded Egypt, Cleopatra VII, the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty, died in August 30 BC. Egypt became a Roman province and the empire's main source of grain.
The Fatimids, a dynasty from North Africa, conquered Egypt in 969 and founded a new royal city whose name, al-Qahira, 'the Vanquisher', became Cairo. The Al-Azhar Mosque was begun the following year.
After a nationwide uprising in 1919, Britain, which had occupied Egypt since 1882, declared Egypt independent in February 1922. Egypt became a kingdom under Fuad I, though Britain kept troops and strong influence for decades.
On 23 July 1952 the Free Officers, led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, took power, and King Farouk gave up the throne. Egypt was declared a republic in June 1953, and Nasser became its leading figure.
President Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty in Washington on 26 March 1979, following the Camp David Accords of 1978. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula by 1982, and the small border town of Taba was handed back in 1989 after international arbitration.
After more than 30 years of planning and building, the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza was officially opened on 1 November 2025. It shows Tutankhamun's complete collection together for the first time.
Cook one of the recipes, print the large-print pack about Egypt, and finish with the big-screen quiz or the words crossword. Grandchildren can colour the flag.
