Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta

back to
the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the [21]earliest
developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Egypt
was an early and important centre of Christianity, later adopting Islam from the seventh century
onwards. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in the tenth century, and of the Mamluk
Sultanate in the 13th century. Egypt then became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, before its local
ruler Muhammad Ali established modern Egypt as an autonomous Khedivate in 1867.
The country was then occupied by the British Empire and gained independence in 1922 as a monarchy.
Following the 1952 revolution, Egypt declared itself a republic, and in 1958 it merged with Syria to form
the United Arab Republic, which was dissolved in 1961. Egypt fought several armed
conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and occupied the Gaza Strip intermittently until
1967. In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords, which recognised Israel in exchange for its
withdrawal from the Sinai. After the Arab Spring, which led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and
overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the country faced a protracted period of political unrest; this included
the election in 2012 of a brief, short-lived Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islamist government
spearheaded by Mohamed Morsi, and its subsequent overthrow after mass protests in 2013.

Egypt's current government, a semi-presidential republic led by president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he
was elected in 2014, has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian and responsible
for perpetuating the country's poor[1]human rights record. Islam is the official religion of Egypt,
and Arabic is its official language. The great majority of its people live near the banks of
the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is
found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's[22] territory, are sparsely
inhabited. About 43% of Egypt's residents live across the country's urban areas, with most spread
across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile
Delta. Egypt is considered to be a regional power in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim
[23]
world, and a middle power worldwide. It is a developing country having a diversified economy, which
is the largest in Africa, the 38th-largest economy by nominal GDP and 127th by nominal GDP per
[24]
capita. Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab
League, the African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, World Youth Forum, and a member
of BRICS.