Egypt Map

Egypt has been famous for both its history and pre-history, for the Valley of he Kings, the Sphinx, the Pyramids of Giza, the Suez Canal, and the life-giving Nile River that helped it become a vast empire. The origins of the country's name comes from the Greek kemet, meaning 'black land', the fertile soil deposited every year by the Nile. Similarly, the word desert comes from the same origin, as it means 'red land' or the infertile sand everywhere else. The ancient empire lasted for several centuries after unifications under King Menes; the ages divided into the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, and the Ptolemaic periods. Officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, the transcontinental country was conquered by Greeks, Romans, Persians, Mamluks, Ottomans, France, and Britain, and has suffered six famines from 1687 to 1731. It gained independence in 1922, though the national flag has changed in 1953, 1958, 1972, and 1984. Although a desert with an average of 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, frost and snow can be found on its Mount Sinai.