Facts on Egypt

Ancient Eygpt

·         Geography:  Egyptian life is centered around the Nile river

                  It is where 95% of people lived. The source of the Nile River is mountains in Africa. It is used for water for drinking, irrigating, and bathing. It floods every July. Egyptians were the first to have a calendar based off of three reasons: solar day calendar, lunar month calendar, and a solar year calendar. Every October it leaves behind rich soil, the delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile soil. Managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation. They built canals and dams to help with the river.

·         Daily life: slaves and servants, farmers, artisans, merchants, scribes, soldiers, government officials, pharaohs.  Slaves helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties. Farmers raised wheat, barely, lentils, onions- benefited from irrigation of the Nile. Artisans would carve statues, would show military battles, after life (your life after you die), everyday life. Money/ barter system was used – merchants might accept bags of grain for payment – later, coinage came out. Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry, described anatomy and medical treatments. They wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic. Soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) w/ bronze tips and might ride chariots.  Upper class, known as the “white kilt class”- priest, physicians, engineers. Religious and political leader. Pharaohs is the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: “Lord of the Two Lands” and the “High priest to every Temple”. Pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owend all the land, made laws and collected taxes.  He was considered the chosen one by the gods, so if something bad happened to a lot of people, he was blamed and was not the “chosen one” anymore.

·         Pharaohs: the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: “Lord of the Two Lands” and the “High priest to every Temple”. Pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owned all the land, made laws and collected taxes.  He was considered the chosen one by the gods, so if something bad happened to a lot of people, he was blamed and was not the “chosen one” anymore. Normally men but Hatshepsut was one women pharaoh, also Cleopatra VII but more for Greece.

·         Pyramids: most famous pyramid is the Great Sphinx of Giza. Built 2555-2532BC. A recumbent lion with a humans head. Oldest monumental statue in the world. 

Egypt today:

·         Econmy: tourism (who wouldn’t want to see the pyramids?) Since the revolution the tourism has been to great

·         Oil, natural gas, manufacturing

·         Agriculture- making the most of their limited arable land (3%)

Cotton, corn, rice, wheat, fava beans

·         The old pattern of dealing with the Nile pere (land emerges from the flood), and shomu (water is short) has been changed since the 1970 building of the Aswan High Dam

·         The dam controls the flooding of the Nile, and increases the amount of reclaimed land

Demographics- 79 million people, biggest population of Middle Eastern nations

            Cairo: 6.7 million

            NYC: 8.3 million

·         Official language: Arabic (English, French, German are also taught to come)

·         Religion: around 90% Muslim, most of the rest Christian, (Coptic), but there are major conflicts (Egypt is 12^th in religious violence, 5^th worst religious freedom

Olitics, government, revolution

1922- end of protectorate with the united Kingdom

1953- Egypt declared a Republic

1954-1970: ruled by Gamal Nasser

·         Nationalizes the Suez Canal

·         Forms allegiance with Soviet Union

1970-1981: ruled by Anwar Sadat

·         Switches allegiance to the United States

·         Attacked Isreal over Sinai Peninsula, but later made peace

·         Isreal grabbed some part of the Peninsula

·         Sadat assassinated in 1981

1981-2011: ruled by Hosni Mubarak

·         Kept alliance with US (helped in the Iraq war)

·         Accused of corruption, political persecution, human rights violations

·         Driven from office following mass demonstrations last month

So whats next?

·         Egypt currently ruled by military junta, but democratic elections scheduled for September 2011

·         Some want Mubarak arrested and tried for embezzling from the government. Our friend Sarah and other Egyptians say he may have stolen $50-70 billion.

·         Revolution is in the air throughout the middle East and northern Africa: Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya

·         Libya has been ruled by Muammar Gaddafi since 1969

o   He is violently opposing Libya’s uprising

o   Libya may descend into full civil war

o   The east is controlled by rebels, but he still holds the capital (Tripoli)- so far