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Egypt is one of the most densely inhabited countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its probable 75 million live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers, where the only arable farming land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are lightly occupied. About half of Egypt's inhabitants live in urban areas, with the greater part spread across the densely-populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is well-known for its olden civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, as well as the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains several ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is broadly regarded as a chief political and cultural nation of the Middle East.

A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians next referred to their joined country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet, the "black land", a situation to the productive black soil deposited by the Nile River. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained individually Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and traditions. The first two ruling dynasties of a joined Egypt set the point for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most especially the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

The First middle Period ushered in a time of political disturbance for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of administration, however, brought back transformed wealth for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, accomplishment a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat. A second period of disunity heralded the coming of the first foreign ruling empire in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of minor Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes.

Egypt does not obtain much rainfall with the exception of in the winter months. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern shore the rainfall can be as high as 410 mm with most of the rainfall between October and March. The rise in sea levels due to global warming threatens Egypt’s closely inhabited coastal strip and could have serious consequences for the country’s financial system, agriculture and industry. United with growing demographic pressures, a rise in sea levels could turn millions of Egyptians into ecological refugees by the end of the century, according to climate experts. Egypt is chiefly Muslim, at 90% of the population with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also pursue native Sufi orders, and there is a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent around 10% of the population.