 Name: Arabic Republic of Egypt (Misr).
Area: 1,001,450 sq km (391,191 sq miles).
Population: 77,235,960.
Capital: Cairo.
Language: Arabic and English is widely spoken.
Time: GMT +03 (in summer), GMT +02 (in winter).
Electricity: 220 Volts / 50 Hz.
Currency: Egyptian Pound.
President: Mohamed Hosni Mubarak.
Entry Visas and Passports Validity
All visitors to Egypt must hold a current passport with at least 6 months validation. Visas for a stay of one month may be obtained from all Egyptian Consulates or upon entry to Egypt. This is cost 15.00 USD (for most nationalities).
Services & Government Offices
Government offices, including post offices, are open from 08:00AM - 03:00PM, Sunday through Thursday, are closed Fridays & Saturdays and on national holidays. Shops are open daily from 09:00AM - 01:00PM, and from 04:00PM - 09:00PM, with some shops closed on Sundays.
How to Come?
Egypt can be reached by all means of transportation, air, sea and land. There are direct flights from all over Europe, New York, the Middle East, most of Africa and some of the Far East countries. Otherwise, connections can be made mainly in Europe. Besides the main international Airport at Cairo (which has three terminals, one for the local Airline and the other for almost all other international airlines) there are airports receiving international flights at Alexandria, Hurgada, Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor. Most tourists prefer to arrive at Cairo airport then find theie way around the country but most charter flights from Europe, head directly to other smaller airports.
Any port on the Mediterranean Sea, can be a starting point for a ship to Alexandria or Port Said. Alexandria, is the more common choice. There are also ferries traveling from Saudi Arabia and Jordan crossing the Red Sea to Nuweiba.
Land travel to Egypt can be achieved from all countries in North Africa through Libya or from the Middle East countries through Israel. Sudan is also a common land entry point for most of the middle and southern African countries.
Demography
Over population is Egypt's most immense problem, with 80 million people, it is the most populous nation in the Arab World, and next to Nigeria, it has the second highest population in Africa. From 6 millions in the year 1880. The annual growth rate is 2.2% while, thanks to the Family Organization Program (FOP), it dropped 6% from the 1985 rate. Nevertheless, this amounts to over one million people each year.
Egypt is a highly centralized country, 96% of the population lives on only 4% of the land, and due to the rapid urbanization of the past two decades, 18 millions of the 63 live in the Greater Cairo area, and 6 millions live in Alexandria, while the rest are scattered along the Nile Valley. Despite the improvement of Egypt's Economy, the increase in GNP is immediately consumed by the increase in population, in other words, if the population growth rate does not decrease significantly, there is no way the economy will improve.
The government is trying, in vain, to cope with exploding population, in terms of schools, health facilities, accommodation etc. The past five years have also witnessed effective attempts of decentralization, residential areas have been constructed outside Cairo, as well as highways to take you to and from Cairo.
Economy
The four pillars of the Egyptian economy are oil and gas, Suez Canal revenues, remittances from Egyptians working abroad and tourism. The resources are vast, but the ever-increasing population eats them all up. Egypt had been a feudalist economy for a very long time and prior to the revolution of 1952, its economy was based primarily on farming, with very little industry.
The 1960�s saw an increase in industrialization with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Under Gamal Abd-El Nasser's socialist regime, the majority of large industries were nationalized. In the 1970's President Anwar El-Sadat introduce his "Open Door Policy" which encouraged a free market as well as trade with Europe and the United States.
This gradual economic reform has been continued by President Hosni Mubarak and the 1990's have witnessed a high degree of privatization, in an effort to diminish Nasser's public-sector and introduce a new flourishing private-sector with its own new stock exchange in down town.
Currency
The Egyptian currency is the pound. It comes in half-pound notes & coins, one-pound notes & coins, five-pound notes, ten-pound notes, twenty-pound notes, fifty-pound notes, one hundred-pound notes and two hundred-pound notes.
Weather
Mainly hot & dry. Temperatures exceed 38C during summer (from May to September) with extremes of up to 50C. From the late November to February temperatures range from 15-25C on the Mediterranean coast to 20-30C in Aswan in the South.
During winter nights, temperatures can plummet to 10C on the coast in Cairo. In the desert and the mountains of Sinai, days are scorching hot, but bitterly cold at night. Alexandria in the north receives the most rain (200mm per year), whilst Aswan in the south has received an average of 10mm in the last 5 years. |
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