Egypt

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the... oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu over an approximately 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 metres , the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid.
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The Pyramid of Menkaure, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza. It... was built to serve as the tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure. Menkaura's Pyramid had an original height of 65.5 metres and was the smallest of the three major pyramids at the Giza Necropolis. It now stands at 61 m tall with a base of 108.5 m. Its angle of incline is approximately 51°20′25″. It was constructed of limestone and granite. The first sixteen courses of the exterior were made of granite. The upper portion was cased in the normal manner with Tura limestone. Part of the granite was left in the rough. Incomplete projects like this help archeologists understand the methods used to build pyramids and temples. South of the pyramid of Menkaure were 3 satellite pyramids none of which appear to have been completed. The largest was made partly in granite like the main pyramid. Neither of the other 2 progressed beyond the construction of the inner core. Menkaure was allegedly a much more benevolent Pharaoh than his predecessors.
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The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza... Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres long, 6 metres wide, and 20.22 m high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra . The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it, such as who its face was modeled after, when it was built, and by whom, are still debated. These questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx," although this phrase should not be confused with the original Greek legend of the Riddle of the Sphinx.
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Badaber Uprising was an armed uprising by Soviet Union and Republic of Afghanistan captives held at the Badaber fortress-jail in Pakistan on April... 26 and 27, 1985, against much larger units of Pakistan's regular army accompanied by Afghan mujahideen. The attempt of the captives to liberate themselves failed. As a result of the two-day assault of the fortress-jail Badaber by the guards with accompanying artillery shelling, all the captives were killed. The Badaber refugee camp, 24 km from Peshawar, acted as the military training center for Afghan rebels who opposed the Soviet presence in their country. They trained under supervision by military instructors from USA, Pakistan, Republic of China and Egypt. The Badaber base belonged to Jamiat-e Islami of Afghanistan, one of the most influential and major opposition groups that resisted Soviet influence in Afghanistan supported by the US Operation Cyclone. Soviet and DRA captives were brought to the base in 1983-1984 after being held in zindans by rebel units. They were assigned heavy duties that included work in a quarry and loading of ordnance. As of 1985, 25 Soviet and about 60 Afghan captives were held in Badaber.
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The Egyptian–Libyan War was a short border war between Libya and Egypt in July, 1977. On July 21, 1977, there were first gun battles between... troops on the border, followed by land and air strikes. On July 24, the combatants agreed to a ceasefire under the mediation of the President of Algeria Houari Boumediène. Relations between the Libyan and the Egyptian governments were deteriorating ever since the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, due to Libyan opposition to Sadat's peace policy as well as the breakdown of unification talks between the two governments. In addition, the Egyptian government had broken its military ties with Moscow, while the Libyan government kept that cooperation going. The Egyptian government also gave assistance to former RCC members Major Abd al Munim al Huni and Omar Muhayshi, who unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Gaddafi in 1975 and allowed them to reside in Egypt. During 1976 relations were ebbing, as the Egyptian government claimed to have discovered a Libyan plot to overthrow the government in Cairo.
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Shaba I was a conflict between the neighbouring states of Zaire and Angola in 1977, and was arguably a consequence of Zaire's support for the FNLA... and UNITA factions in the Angolan Civil War. The conflict began on March 8, 1977 when about 2,000 members of the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo , invaded Shaba province in south western Zaire, with the support of Angola's MPLA government and the possible involvement of Cuban troops. President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire appealed for outside support on April 2. The war ended when 1,500 Moroccan troops, airlifted into Zaire on April 10 by the French government, beat back the FNLC. The attack led to government reprisals, which led to the mass exodus of refugees as well as further political and economic instability within Zaire itself. The FNLC carried out a second invasion , the following year. Included in the invading force was a small remnant of the Katangan gendarmes that had supported the secession of Katanga from Congo under the leadership of Moise Tshombe in 1960.
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The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6... to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The war began when the coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Israeli-held Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights respectively, which had been captured and occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War. Both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. The war began with a massive and successful Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal during the first three days, after which they dug in, settling into a stalemate.
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The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is a free trade area with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Zimbabwe. COMESA formed... in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981. Nine of the member states formed a free trade area in 2000 , with Rwanda and Burundi joining the FTA in 2004 and the Comoros and Libya in 2006. COMESA is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community. In 2008, COMESA agreed to an expanded free-trade zone including members of two other African trade blocs, the East African Community and the Southern Africa Development Community .
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The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in... Africa. The Group comprises the African Development Bank , the African Development Fund , and the Nigeria Trust Fund . AfDB provides loans and grants to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries in Africa. It is owned and funded by member governments, and has a public-interest mandate to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. Following the end of colonial period in Africa, growing desire for more unity within the continent led to the establishment of two draft charters, one for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity , and for a regional development bank. A draft accord was submitted to top African officials, then to African Ministers, before being cosigned by twenty-three African governments on August 4, 1963, in the form of an agreement establishing the African Development Bank.
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The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002,... the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity . The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Among the objectives of the AU's leading institutions are: The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of Equatorial Guinea, elected at the tenth ordinary meeting of the Assembly in January 2011. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan African Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national parliaments of the AU member states. Its president is Idriss Ndele Moussa.
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The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries is a multi-governmental organization headquartered in Kuwait which coordinates energy... policies between oil–producing Arab nations, and whose main purpose is developmental. On 9 January 1968, three of the then–most conservative Arab oil states Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia agreed at a conference in Beirut, Lebanon to found the Organization of Arab Petroleum Engineering Countries, aiming to separate the production and sale of oil from politics in the wake of the halfhearted 1967 oil embargo in response to the Six Day War. Such use of the economic weapon of oil embargo in the struggle against Israel had been regularly proposed at Arab Petroleum Congresses, but it took the Six Day War for the embargo happen. However Saudi Arabia's oil production was up by 9% that year, and the main embargo lasted only ten days and was completely ended by the Khartoum Conference. OAPEC was originally intended to be a conservative Arab political organization which, by restricting membership to countries whose main export was oil, would exclude governments seen as radical such as Egypt and Algeria.
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Tanta University is an Egyptian university in the city of Tanta, Al Gharbiyah governorate, Egypt. The university is under the direct scientific... supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded first in 1962 as a branch from the University of Alexandria with the faculty of Medicine only and then it became an independent university named University of the Middle Delta in 1972. It had at that time Medicine, Science, Agriculture and Education faculties. Then, its name was changed into Tanta University in 1973. The Faculty of Pharmacy was established in 1976-1977 in the city of Tanta, Egypt. It is thought to be among the top Pharmacy faculties in Egypt. Student gets the degree of Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences after successfully passing 10 semesters studying in 8 departments including: Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical analytical chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacognosy, Microbiology, Pharmacology & Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacy. The Faculty offers the opportunity to obtain Diploma, Master and Ph.D. degrees in various specialisations in the mentioned departments.
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Mansoura University was founded in 1972 in Mansoura city, Egypt. Now, it also has a branch in Damietta. It is one of the biggest Egyptian... universities and has contributed much to the cultural and scientific life in Mansoura and Egypt. Mansoura University was founded in 1972 and is located at the middle of the Nile Delta in Egypt. The Study at the University covers the major disciplines; Medicine, Applied Science, Humanities, The faculty of medicine was founded in 1962 as a branch of Cairo University. In 1972, a presidential decree announced the establishment of the University under the name "East Delta University". Later on, its name was changed to Mansoura University in 1973. The main Campus is located in Mansoura city. It comprises the following faculties: The University also provides a number of students' services within the campus which include: Four faculties are located off campus, which are: The Damietta branch has eight faculties: Mansoura University is famous for its specialized Medical centers, which provide both medical and academic services.
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The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt. The... university’s mission is to provide an American liberal arts education to students from all socio-economic backgrounds in Egypt and other nations around the world, and to make substantial contributions to Egypt's intellectual life and culture. The university offers American-style education at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, and it provides an extensive continuing education program. The university promotes the ideals of American education, professional education, and lifelong learning. The AUC student body represents over 100 countries and includes over 300 North American study abroad students. AUC's faculty members, adjunct teaching staff and visiting lecturers are internationally diverse as well and include academics, business professionals, diplomats, journalists, writers and others from the United States, Egypt and other countries.
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Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian... Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of modernization, and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism, including a short-lived union with Syria. Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history and politics in the 20th century. Under his leadership, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World and Africa. The imposed ending to the Suez Crisis made him a hero throughout the Arab world. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s.
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Ahmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian-American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus... Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Ahmed Zewail was born on February 26, 1946 in Damanhour, Egypt and raised in Disuq. He received bachelor's degree and MS degree from the University of Alexandria before moving from Egypt to the United States to complete his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania with advisor Robin Hochstrasser. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley with advisor Charles B. Harris. After some post doctorate work at UC-Berkeley, he was awarded a faculty appointment at Caltech in 1976, where he has remained since, and in 1990, he was made the first Linus Pauling Chair in Chemical Physics. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
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Dalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but... naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult life in France. She received 55 gold records and was the first singer to receive a diamond disc. Dalida performed and recorded in more than 10 languages including: French, Arabic, Italian, Greek, German, English, Japanese, Hebrew, Dutch and Spanish. Renowned for the changes she wrought to the French and global music industry with her powerful and colourful performances, she is today still remembered by aficionados throughout the world. A 30-year career and her death led to an iconic image as a tragic diva and renowned singer. Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti was born in Shubra, Cairo, Egypt. Her family was of Italian origin, from Calabria, Italy, but were living in Egypt, where Dalida’s father, Pietro Gigliotti, was first violinist at the Cairo Opera House.
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Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been... nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards. Omar Sharif was born Michel Dimitri Shalhoub in Alexandria into a Catholic Egyptian family. Sharif graduated from Alexandria's Victoria College, where he is reported by his schoolmate Edward W. Said to have been sadistic and physically abusive in his capacity as "head boy" at Alexandria's Victoria College. Sharif later graduated from Cairo University with degrees in both mathematics and physics. In 1953, Sharif began his acting career with a role in Sira` Fi al-Wadi. He quickly rose to stardom, appearing in over 20 Egyptian productions including Ayyamna el helwa with singer Abdel Halim Hafez, La anam in 1958, Sayedat el kasr in 1959 and the Anna Karenina adaptation Nahr el hub in 1961. He also starred with his wife, Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, in several movies as romantic leads.
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Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , sometimes called North Sudan, is a country in North Africa and the Middle East both geographically and... politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous Nilo-Saharan-speaking Africans, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides. The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt.
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Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the... southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres , Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. In 2009 Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production. As a result of the Libyan civil war, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which had at that time been in existence for 34 years, collapsed and Libya entered a period of governance by a transitional administration called the National Transitional Council.
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