Egypt is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,560 square miles), Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast; on the north and the east are the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, respectively.

Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in the world with a population 78.8 million (2006),The majority of population spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo (the largest city in Africa and the Middle East), Alexandria and other major towns in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most ancient and important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of Luxor contains a particularly large number of ancient artifacts such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings.

 Today, Egypt is widely regarded as the main political and cultural centre of the Middle East.

 

 

 

The Capital:

The capital city of Egypt is the city of 'Cairo',It comes from the arabic word "قاهرة" means "Triumphant", It has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15.2 million people. Cairo is the seventeenth most populous metropolitan area in the world (the 10th according to 2004 statistics). Cairo is also the most populous metropolitan area and the most populous city in Africa. The city is located at 30°2' North, 31°13' East (30.03333, 31.21667).

While al-Qāhirah is the official name of the city, in local speech it is typically called simply by the name of the country, Miṣr (Arabic, مصر) pronounced Maṣr in the local dialect.

 It is in Cairo where one of the oldest operating universities in the world was established, namely,  Al-Azhar university.