Egypt

Some famous Egyptians include:. Outside of these three main groups we can find:. To bolster its media industry, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf states and Lebanon, it has built a large media city that it has promoted as the "Hollywood of the East." Egypt is the only Arab country with an opera house. This area consists of: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Though considered a low-income country, Egypt has a thriving media and arts industry, with more than 30 satellite channels and more than 100 motion pictures produced each year. The main religions are Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism, with large Muslim populations in some parts formerly ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Egypt also has a strong Christian heritage as evidenced by the existence of the Coptic Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria, which has a following of approximately 50 million Christians worldwide (one of the famous Coptic Orthodox Churches is Saint Takla Haimanot Church in Alexandria http://www.St-Takla.org). This area corresponds, more or less, to Central and Eastern Europe.

The head of Al-Azhar is traditionally regarded as the supreme leader of Sunni Muslims all over the world. Slavic Europe, where Slavic languages are spoken. Al-Azhar University (Arabic: جامعة الأزهر ) is the oldest Islamic institution for higher studies (founded around 970 CE), with its corresponding mosque Al-Azhar. This area consists of: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Romania, Moldova, French-speaking Belgium, Romandy, Romansh-speaking Switzerland, and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Egypt also hosts two major religious institutions. The major religion is Catholicism, except in Romania and Moldova. The Egyptian Academy of the Arabic Language is responsible for regulating the Arabic Language (Arabic:اللغة العربية ) throughout the world. This area corresponds more or less to south-western Europe, with the exception of Romania and Moldova which are situated in Eastern Europe.

Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Latin Europe, where the Romance languages are spoken. An oasis is a fertile or green area in the midst of a desert. This region consists of: United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, German speaking part of Switzerland, the Flemish part of Belgium, the Swedish-speaking municipalities of Finland, and the South Tyrol part of Italy. Oases include: Bahariya Oasis, Dakhleh Oasis, Farafra Oasis, Kharga Oasis, Siwa Oasis. The main religion of the region is Protestantism, (except for `France and Ireland) but the further south you go, you encounter more countries with a Catholic majority (particularly Austria but also Belgium). These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from harm. This area corresponds more or less to north-western Europe and some parts of central Europe.

Deserts: Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. Germanic Europe, where Germanic languages are spoken. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the great ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Shubra-El-Khema, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. There are three main groups:. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. The sub-division in several linguistic and cultural regions is much less subjective than the geographical sub-division, since they correspond to people's cultural connections. Egypt is bordered by Libya on the west, Sudan on the south, and on Israel on the northeast. Notes:
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Egypt also has a strong Christian heritage as it is the home of the Coptic Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria, which has a following of approximately 50 million Christians worldwide. These regions have declared, and de facto achieved, independence; however, they are not recognised de jure by other independent states. Al-Azhar University is the oldest Islamic institution for higher studies (founded around 970 CE), with its corresponding mosque Al-Azhar. Following are breakaway regions of independent states. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues.

Egypt also hosts two major religious institutions. Dependencies located in other continents are listed elsewhere. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. Note that this is not a list of all dependencies of all European countries.

Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and Muslim clerics. In the list below, each territory is followed by its legal status. Christians represent about 6% of the population, primarily the Coptic denomination, though other Christian groups are present, including standard Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox, in Alexandria and Cairo, whose adherents are mainly descendants of Italian, Greek, and Armenian immigrants.
There are also some few, small Jewish communities that are numbered as few as 300 Egyptians.

There are also many who consider themselves as atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, although their numbers can not be identified.

The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Most have a degree of autonomy. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, covering about 94% of the population, most belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. The European territories listed below are recognised as being culturally and geographically defined. According to the constitution, any new legislation must implicitly agree with Islamic (Arabic: الإسلام) laws. ¹ Armenia and Cyprus are not a part of Europe geographically, but may be considered to be European culturally.
² Azerbaijan and Georgia have territory in Europe north of the crest of the Caucasus and the Kura River.
³ Some integral parts of France are located outside Europe.
⁴ Russia and Kazakhstan have territory in Europe west of the Ural Mountains and both the Ural and Emba Rivers.
⁵ The name of this state is a matter of international dispute; see Republic of Macedonia.
⁶ Netherlands and two entites outside Europe (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, in the Caribbean) form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
⁷ The Portuguese Madeira Islands are located in the North Altantic Ocean near the African mainland.
⁸ State union of Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro.
⁹ The Spanish Canary Islands are located in the North Atlantic Ocean; plazas de soberanía (exclaves) are located on the African mainland.
¹⁰ Turkey has territory in Europe west and north of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.
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Several important Jewish archeological and historical sites also remain. The following independent states may be considered to be in Europe:. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in Egypt and those who visit on religious occasions. Europe passed well over 600 million people before the turn of the 20th century, but now is entering a period of population decline due to a variety of social factors. Egypt also hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers, made up mostly of 70,000 Palestinian refugees and 20,000 Sudanese refugees. In contemporary times Europe has one of the lowest inbreeding rates in the world because of an extensive transport network paired with open borders. Ethnic minorities include a small number of Bedouin Arab nomads in the Sinai and eastern and western deserts, as well as some Nubians clustered along the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt who are estimated to be about 0.8% of the population. Roman road building helped with the interbreeding of the native Europeans' genetics.

The Egyptian people have spoken only languages from the Afro-Asiatic family (previously known as Hamito-Semitic) throughout their history starting with Old Egyptian to modern Egyptian Arabic. Neanderthal man and modern man coexisted during at least some of this time. The bulk of modern Egyptian society still maintains a homogenous genetic tie to ancient Egyptian society, which has always been rural and quite populous compared to neighboring countries. 10,000 years ago. North African and Eastern Mediterranean influences are more predominant in the north, while the south which bears the same influences is also home to people who are related to Nubians and Africans further southeast such as Ethiopians. Almost all of Europe was possibly settled before or during the last ice age ca. The Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people. Some animals live in caves, for example proteus and bats.

Approximately 90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity (primarily the Coptic denomination). Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms, different crayfish, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins, and whales. Nearly all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile, notably Alexandria and Cairo, and in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. The sea flora is mainly phytoplankton. Egypt is the second most populous country in Africa, at about 77,500,000 people. Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Important European herbivores are snails, amphibians, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deers and roe deers, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamoises among others.

Economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period of stagnation due to the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. Other important European carnivores are Eurasian lynx, European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of snakes (vipers, grass snake...), different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey). Egypt is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. The wolf, the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in Spain and Scandinavia. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of 2.2 billion dollars per year). In addition, polar bears may be found on Svalbard, an autonomous Norwegian island region far north of Scandinavia. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure, much financed from U.S. Today, the brown bear lives primarily in the Balkan peninsula, Scandinavia, and Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their habitat.

A rapidly-growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. By the Middle Ages the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. However, deforestation caused these animals to withdraw further and further. The United States as well has a large population of Egyptian immigrants. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than 5 million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf area like UAE, and Europe. Today wolves (carnivores) and bears (omnivores) are endangered.

It has a territorial dispute with Sudan over the Hala'ib Triangle. The woolly mammoth and aurochs were extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Egypt is on good terms with all of its neighbours, and was the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European fauna. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. A narrow east-west tongue of Eurasian grassland—the steppe—extends eastwards from Ukraine and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north.

The Secretary General of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. The League of Arab States headquarters is in Cairo. Coniferous forests prevail at higher altitudes up to the forest boundary and as one moves north within Russia and Scandinavia, giving way to tundra as the Arctic is approached. Cairo has been a crossroads of Arab commerce and culture for millennia, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. Another common species in Southern Europe is the cypress. Geography, population, history, military strength, and diplomatic expertise give Egypt extensive political influence in the Middle East. In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate.

Egypt is divided into 26 governorates (Muhafazat; singular – Muhafazah)& the city of Al Uqsur|al-Uqsur]] (Luxor), which is classified as a city rather than a governorate. In the north, where taiga grows, a very common tree species is the birch tree. Egypt continues to contribute regularly to United Nations peacekeeping missions, most recently in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The most important species are beech, birch and oak. Egypt takes part regularly in military exercises with the US and other European and Arab allies, including the manoeuvres that take place in Egypt every two years. In "mainland" Europe, deciduous forest prevails. Bilateral exercises and mutual training are carried out regularly, and, according to one US source, reflect the high level of professionalism and the growing excellence of the fighting men and women in the various branches of the Egyptian armed forces. The country with the smallest forest-covered area is Ireland (eight per cent), while the most forested country is Finland (72 %).

Nothing could furnish clearer proof of this than the high degree of transparency surrounding all aspects of Egyptian-US military cooperation. The amount of original forests in Western Europe is just two to three per cent (in the European part of Russia five to ten per cent). While military cooperation between the US and Egypt is close and diversified, this does not constitute a form of military alliance. The plantations and monocultures now cover vast areas of land and this offers very poor habitats for European forest dwelling species. Military cooperation between the two countries covers a number of strategic areas, including cooperation in the ongoing process of modernising Egyptian armaments and training the Egyptian armed forces. However, in many cases conifers have been preferred over original deciduous trees, because these grow quicker. Military relations between Egypt and the US are strong. During recent times, deforestation has been stopped and many trees were planted.

The length of the service depends on the level of education achieved by the conscripted. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of colonisation, Europe still has over one quarter of the world's forests - spruce forests of Scandinavia, vast pine forests in Russia, chestnut rainforests of the Caucasus and the cork oak forests in the Mediterranean. Full-time students may defer their service until the age of 28. It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Conscription is compulsory for Egyptian men of 18 years of age. Eighty to ninety per cent of Europe was once covered by forest. The Commander of the Air Defence Forces is Major General Abd El Aziz Seif. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems.

Gen.) Magdy Galal Sharawi. Others are oriented south-north (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. The Commander of the Air Forces is Air Marshal (Lt. Some of these (Alps, Pyrenees) are oriented east-west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. The Commander of the Navy is Vice Admiral Tamer Abd El Aleem Mohamed Ismail. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Sami Hafez Enan. There are frequent summer droughts in this region.

Gen. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. The Chief of Staff is Lt. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. The Commander-in-Chief and commander of the army is Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Minister Of Defense and Military Production. The conditions for growth are very favourable. During peacetime, the title of Supreme Commander is ceremonial. The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is forest.

The Supreme Commander is Hosni Mubarak, wartime Field Marshal of the army, admiral of the navy, Chief Air Marshal (Colonel General) of the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces. With the exception of Scandinavia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are today to be found in Europe, except for different natural parks. The Egyptian Armed forces, has a combined troop strength of 450,000 active personnel. Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. Its inventory includes F-16s, Mirage 2000 aircraft, MiG-29 fighters, Apache helicopters, M1 Abrams Tanks and medium-long range missiles. Due to the few generalisations that can be made about the relief of Europe, it is less than surprising that its many separate regions provided homes for many separate nations throughout history. The Egyptian Armed Forces also ranks among the most battle-trained armed forces in the region. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off.

The Egyptian military is the strongest military power on the African continent, and the second largest in the Middle East, the largest being that of Israel - (Source: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies' annual Middle East Strategic Balance). Iceland and the British Isles are special cases. The Coast Guard and Border Guard operate as subordinates to the Navy and Army Command respectively. Sub-regions such as Iberia and Italy contain their own complex features, as does mainland Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. The Egyptian Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة المصرية) consists of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Air Defense. This description is simplified. Most Arab nations still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited. An arc of uplands also exists along the northwestern seaboard, beginning in the western British Isles and continuing along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway.

Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, after the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty at the Camp David Accords. The southern regions, however, are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. The permanent headquarters for the League of Arab States (The Arab League) is located in Cairo. Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. Newspapers, however, have exhibited an increasing degree of freedom in criticizing the president, and the results of the recent parliamentary elections, which saw Islamist parties such as the banned Muslim Brotherhood winning many seats, genuinely indicate that a change of some sorts is underway. Eastward, mainland Europe widens much like the mouth of a funnel, until the boundary with Asia is reached at the Ural Mountains.

A very small proportion of those eligible to vote actually turned out for the 2005 elections. Three smaller peninsulas (Iberia, Italy and the Balkans) emerge from the southern margin of the mainland into the Mediterranean Sea, which separates Europe from Africa. As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratisation and the role of the elections. The two largest of these are "mainland" Europe and Scandinavia to the north, divided from each other by the Baltic Sea. This poses major questions about the government's purported commitment to democracy. In terms of shape, Europe is a collection of connected peninsulas. In addition, violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators and police brutality were evident during the elections. This definition, however, excludes non-members such as Russia and Switzerland.

Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging. In another usage, Europe is increasingly being used as a short-form for the European Union (EU) and its members, currently consisting of 25 member states and the candidate countries negotiating for membership, and several other countries expected to begin negotiations in the future (see Enlargement of the European Union). The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. In the past concepts such as Christendom were deemed more important. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. Some non-European geographical texts refer to the continent of Eurasia, or to the European peninsula, given that Europe is not surrounded by sea. In late-February 2005, Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. The idea of the European continent is not held across all cultures.

The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a sixth consecutive term, was held in September 2005 (see below). Almost all European countries are members of the Council of Europe, the exceptions being Belarus, and the Holy See (Vatican City). Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. Therefore, in some sources, some countries are not included in Europe, while the other sources do include them. Although power is ostensibly organised under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost soley with the President who has traditionally been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Because of political, cultural and geographical differences, there are various descriptions of Europe's boundary. Egypt is regarded by many as being ruled by a military dictatorship. For detailed description of the boundary between Asia and Europe see here..

Atef Ebeid from his office. There is ongoing debate on where the geographical centre of Europe is. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. The western boundary is the Atlantic Ocean, but Iceland, much farther away than the nearest points of Africa, is also often included in Europe. Prime Minister Dr. The Mediterranean Sea to the south separates Europe from Africa. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. However, numerous geographers consider Azerbaijan's and Armenia's southern border with Iran and Turkey's southern and eastern border with Syria, Iraq and Iran as the boundary between Asia and Europe because of political and cultural reasons.

Mubarak is currently serving his sixth term in office. The boundary continues to the Caspian Sea, the crest of the Caucasus Mountains or, alternatively, the Kura River in the Caucasus, and on to the Black Sea; the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles conclude the Asian boundary. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14, 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Most commonly the Ural or, alternatively, the Emba River serve as possible boundaries. Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. The southeast boundary with Asia is not universally defined. Sadat was murdered by a religious fundamentalist in 1981, and succeeded by Hosni Mubarak. The continent begins at the Ural Mountains in Russia, which define Europe's eastern boundary with Asia.

In 1979, Sadat made peace with Israel in exchange for the Sinai, a move that sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League (it was readmitted in 1989). Geographically Europe is a part of the larger landmass known as Eurasia. Both the United States and the USSR intervened, and a cease-fire was reached between Egypt and Israel. Around 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Eastern bloc disintegrated. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched a surprise attack on Israel in the October War (known also as the Yom Kippur War), which, despite not being a complete military success, was by most accounts a political victory. From the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War, Europe was divided into two major political and economic blocks: Communist nations in Eastern Europe (with the exceptions of Turkey and Greece) and capitalist countries in Western Europe and Southern Europe. Egypt's name was also restored. Many of the states in Europe took their present form in the aftermath of World War I.

Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the Infitah economic reform, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. The Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, leading to a move away from agriculture, much greater general prosperity and a corresponding increase in population. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt lost the Sinai to Israel, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat, who presented his takeover in terms of a Corrective Revolution. After these conquests Europe stabilised, but the old foundations were already beginning to crumble. This attempt too was met with mixed reactions, and it was clear that many Egyptians resented finding that the name of their country, which had endured for thousands of years, was suddenly eliminated. The most famous of these conflicts was when Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and set out on a conquest, forming a new French Empire that soon collapsed. Between 1958 and 1961, Nasser undertook to form a union between Egypt and Syria known as the United Arab Republic. The rise of democracy led to increased tensions within Europe on top of the tensions already existing due to competition within the New World.

Nasser came out of the war an Arab hero, and Nasserism won widespread influence in the region though was met with mixed reactions amongst Egyptians, many of whom had previously been indifferent to Arab nationalism. This led to vast upheaval in Europe as these revolutionary ideas propagated across the continent. After Naguib was also forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real architect of the 1952 movement, the latter assumed power as President and nationalized the Suez Canal leading to the 1956 Suez Crisis. Struggles for independence arose, most notably in France during the period known as the French Revolution. Finally, the Egyptian Republic was declared on 18 June 1953 with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. After the age of discovery, the ideas of democracy took hold in Europe. However, in 1952 a military coup d'état forced King Farouk I, a constitutional monarch, to abdicate in support of his son King Ahmed Fouad II. They were later joined by France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia.

Between 1924-1936 there existed a short-lived but successful attempt to model Egypt's constitutional government after the European style of government; known as Egypt's Liberal Experiment. In the 15th century Portugal opened the age of discoveries, soon followed by Spain. Almost fully independent from the UK in 1922, the Egyptian Parliament drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 under the leadership of the popular revolutionary Saad Zaghlul. The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of a period of discovery, exploration, and increase in scientific knowledge. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Isolated monastic communities in Ireland and elsewhere carefully safeguarded and compiled written knowledge accumulated previously. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub; however, the country also fell heavily into debt. During this time, the Ottoman Empire conquered Istanbul formerly known as Constantinople and finished the Byzantine Empire and became the most important power of all Europe.

A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. That period has been known as the "Dark Ages" to Renaissance thinkers. Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries. Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of changes arising from what is known as the Age of Migrations. It was the Muslim Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the seventh century to the Egyptians, who gradually adopted both. The Roman Empire divided the continent along the Rhine and Danube for several centuries. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Persians again. The origins of Western democratic and individualistic culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece, though numerous other distinct influences, in particular Christianity, can also be credited with the spread of concepts like egalitarianism and universality of law.

The last native dynasty, known as the Thirtieth Dynasty, fell to the Persians in 341 BC who dug the predecessor of the Suez canal and connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The recent discovery at Monte Poggiolo, Italy, of thousands of hand-shaped stones, tentatively carbon-dated to 800,000 years ago, may prove to be of particular importance. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3200 BC by King Narmer, and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. Europe has a long history of cultural and economic achievement, starting as far back as the Palaeolithic, although this is true for the rest of the Old World as well. The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. Likewise, Asia is sometimes thought to have derived from the Akkadian word asu, meaning "sunrise", and is the land to the east from a Mesopotamian perspective. For details see the article Copt. From the Middle Eastern vantagepoint, the sun does set over Europe, the lands to the west.

This word may in turn be derived from the ancient Egyptian phrase ḥwt-k3-ptḥ ("Hwt ka Ptah") meaning "home of the Ka (part of the soul) of Ptah," the name of a temple of the god Ptah at Memphis. A minority, however, suggest this Greek popular etymology is really based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "sunset" (see also Erebus). The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word Αίγυπτος Aiguptos (see also List of traditional Greek place names). The Greek term Europe has been derived from Greek words meaning broad (eurys) and face (ops) -- broad having been an epitheton of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion; see Prithvi (Plataia). This name became keme in a later stage of Coptic. Later Europa stood for mainland Greece, and by 500 BC its meaning had been extended to lands to the north. Misr, the Arabic and official name for modern Egypt, is of Semitic origin directly cognate with the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם Mitzráyim meaning "the two straits", and possibly means "a country" or "a state." The ancient name for the country, kemet, or "black land," is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the 'red land' (deshret) of the desert. For Homer, Europé (Greek: Ευρωπη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation.

. In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as the main political and cultural centre of the Arab and Middle Eastern regions. . Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most stunning ancient monuments, including the Giza Pyramids, the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings; the southern city of Luxor contains a particularly large number of ancient artifacts. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (Asia and Africa are larger) with a population of more than 705,000,000, or about 11% of the world's population. About half of the Egyptian people today are urban, living in the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, the largest city in Africa, and Alexandria. Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering around 10,430,000 km² (4,020,000 sq mi) or 2.0% of the Earth's surface, and is only larger than Australia.

Large areas of land are part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. Europe's boundary to the east is vague, but has traditionally been given as the Ural Mountains and Caspian Sea to the southeast: the Urals are considered by most to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Asia from Europe. The vast majority of its 77 million population (2005) live near the banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km²), where the only arable agricultural land is found. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the south by the Mediterranean and the Caucasus. Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in the world. Physically and geologically, Europe is a subcontinent or large peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. Covering an area of about 1,020,000 km², Egypt shares land borders with Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast and has coasts on the north and east by the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, respectively. Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one.

While most of the country is geographically located in Africa, the Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is in Asia. These countries are referred as "Baltic countries", a term that (in its modern sense) indicates the states around the Baltic Sea, which gained their independence from Russia after WWI and came under Soviet rule in 1940, including Estonia. The Arab Republic of Egypt, commonly known as Egypt, (in Arabic: مصر, romanized Misr, in Egyptian Arabic Másr, listen (help·info)), is a republic in North Africa. Baltic languages are dominant in Lithuania and Latvia. Anwar Sadat (former president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize). The Armenian language is spoken in Armenia and other European countries with Armenian communities (such as France, Greece, Belgium, Russia, Germany etc.). Mohamed ElBaradei (Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize). Armenia, although not considered as part of Europe geographically, has a language that constitutes a separate branch of Indo-European family of languages and the nation is considered to be European culturally.

Ahmed Zewail (Nobel Prize-winning chemist). Finland is, due to cultural ties, considered part of the Nordic countries and Estonia is associated with Balticum. Omar Sharif (actor). They are normally associated with northern European countries. Umm Kulthum (singer). Finland and Estonia, whose languages are distantly related to Hungarian. Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize-winning novelist). Due to its location, Hungary is normally grouped with Central or Eastern European countries.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary General of the United Nations). Hungary, having a language not of Indo-European origin and distantly related to Finnish and Estonian. Gamal Abdel Nasser (former president). Moreover, it is mainly a Muslim country, as opposed to the rest of Europe where many denominations of Christianity prevail. Saad Zaghlul (leader of first modern Egyptian revolution). Turkey, with the Turkish language, classified as Altaic and not of Indo-European origin. This group includes Georgians, Abkhaz, Chechens, Balkars, and a number of other smaller ethnic groups that reside in the Caucasus.

Ibero-Caucasian languages are not linked to the Indo-European languages. Ibero-Caucasian, a group that includes ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus region (both North and South). It is often associated with the Latin countries, due to the geographical and cultural ties to the Mediterranean Sea, and sometimes to the Slavic-Orthodox part of Europe due to the importance of Orthodoxy in Greece. In Hellenic Europe we can consider also the Greek Cypriot community.

Greece, the only country of "Hellenic Europe". Also considered Celtic nations are both Galicia (Spain) and Asturias, (within Spain), whose own Celtic language died out a millennium years ago, and England where Celtic culture persists, and Celtic dialect remains in many regional dialects (see Cumbric), although England's Celtic languages died out as recently as the 18th century in Devon. These are all nations where a Celtic language is spoken, or was spoken into modern times, and there is a degree of shared culture (see Pan Celticism). The Celtic nations: Scotland, Wales, Cornwall (within the United Kingdom); the Isle of Man (a British Crown dependency); Ireland; Brittany (within France).

Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey are crown dependencies affiliated with the United Kingdom.
. ^ –5. ^  Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe (UN region) and Asia; population and area figures are for European portion only.
. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 2, 6-8, 10-15) may be in one or both of Europe and Asia, Africa, or Oceania.
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^  Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map. Kosovo and Metohia (province of Serbia, administrated by UNMIK as per Security Council resolution 1244). Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (from Cyprus; recognised only by Turkey). Nagorno-Karabakh (from Azerbaijan; recognised only by Armenia).