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To visit Gamal Abdul Nasser Photo gallery and other info, just click here, however this page will not close and will stay open ..
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CAIRO, Egypt's capital, is the largest city in both Africa and the Middle East. Egyptians' strong identity extends back to the 4th millennium BC when the ancient Egyptian civilization was established. The Nile River valley is about 1,530 km long. In the south the valley is rarely more than 3 km wide. North of EDFU the valley averages 8 to 16 km in width, with steep cliffs on either side. From Cairo to the north, the valley merges with the fertile delta.
The Nile, Egypt's only river, the world's longest river, it is more than 6,440 km in length and is navigable as far south as ASWAN where the ASWAN HIGH DAM has created a reservoir--Lake NASSER--the world's largest artificial lake. The Nile Delta has numerous distributaries, the largest of which are the Rosetta and Damietta.
Egypt has a large number of institutions of higher learning , Al-Azhar University in Cairo, founded in 970 for Islamic learning, is one of the oldest universities in the world. Ain Shams University (1950) and Cairo University (1908) are Egypt's largest.
During World War II, Egypt helped Britain to defeat German forces at El ALAMEIN. In 1952 the Egyptian army seized power, and King Farouk abdicated. The monarchy was abolished in 1953, and Egypt became a republic with Gen. Muhammad Naguib as the first president. In 1954, Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser forced Naguib out of office and became president. Following the withdrawal of a Western offer to finance the Aswan High Dam, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956. In retaliation, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. The troops were forced to withdraw under pressure from the United States, the USSR, and the United Nations. Nasser's successful resistance to the triple aggression increased his popularity in the Arab World and led to Egypt's forming a short-lived union (1958-61) with Syria, known as the UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC.
In 1967 increased tension between Israel and the Arab states and the closure of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping brought about war with Israel. During the War the Egyptian army was defeated in the Sinai, which came under Israeli occupation.
Nasser died in September 1970 and was succeeded by his vice-president, Anwar al SADAT. In July 1972, Sadat ordered the 20,000 Soviet military advisors and experts in Egypt to leave because he believed that the Soviets were not willing to supply Egypt with sophisticated weapons needed to liberate territory lost to Israel.
 OCTOBER WAR (1973) The uneasy state of neither war nor peace let Sadat make assurances that military action against Israel was intended. In a surprise attack on Oct. 6, 1973, Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal into the Sinai, and Syrian forces entered the Golan Heights. Egyptian forces regained a strip of the Sinai during the three-week war. The war, along with the reopening of the Suez Canal in June 1975, enhanced Sadat's reputation. Egypt repeatedly warned that they would not accept continued Israeli occupation of the lands lost in 1967. After Anwar al-SADAT succeeded Nasser as president of Egypt in 1970, threats were more frequent, as was periodic massing of troops along the Suez Canal. Sadat consolidated war preparations in secret agreements with President Hafez al-ASSAD of Syria for a joint attack and with King FAISAL of Saudi Arabia to support the operations. Egypt and Syria attacked on Oct. 6, 1973, pushing Israeli forces behind the 1967 cease-fire lines. It was in purpose that the attack came on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the most sacred Jewish religious day , also the attack was during the Muslim fast of Ramadan . Israel failed to regain the territory lost in the fighting on the Egyptian front, although seizing a bridgehead behind the Egyptian 3rd army lines . After 18 days of fighting in the longest Arab-Israeli war since 1948, hostilities were halted by the UN. The costs were the greatest in any battles fought since World War II. The political phase of the 1973 war ended with disengagement agreements accepted by Egypt, Syria and Israel, the agreements provided for Egyptian reoccupation of a strip of land in Sinai along the east bank of the Suez Canal and for Syrian control of a small area around the Golan Heights town of Kuneitra. In 1974 the United States and Egypt resumed diplomatic relations, previously severed by Egypt in 1967. By September 1975, through U. S. mediating efforts, Egypt and Israel had reached several agreements on the disengagement of their forces. In March 1976, Sadat abrogated a friendship treaty with the USSR signed in 1971. Sadat took a dramatic and significant step toward peace with Israel by visiting Jerusalem in November 1977. President Jimmy CARTER sponsored a peace summit in September 1978 between Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem BEGIN. Egypt and Israel signed preliminary documents for a peace treaty. The actual treaty, signed on Mar. 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C., called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai. The withdrawal proceeded smoothly, and in January 1980, Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations. Little progress was made, however, in the difficult negotiations on Palestinian autonomy, and the rest of the Arab world rejected the rapprochement with Israel by that time.
Sadat promoted peace with Israel, economic liberalism, and Egyptian nationalism , also he increased political freedoms. His successor, Hosni MUBARAK, honored the peace treaty with Israel but criticized the lack of progress on the Palestinian issue. Mubarak improved Egypt's ties with other Arab nations, gaining readmission to the Islamic Conference Organization in 1984 and to the Arab League in 1989; in 1990 the League voted to return its headquarters to Cairo. Mubarak's activist foreign policy improved his domestic standing and won him the gratitude of the United States. Egypt and the invation of Kuwait After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, however, Mubarak convenced the Arab summit that voted to deploy Arab soldiers to supplement U.S. forces invited to Saudi Arabia, arguing that no Arab state should attack and occupy another. Egyptian troops (the last of which returned home in August 1991) formed the third-largest allied contingent in the PERSIAN GULF WAR in 1991. The Egyptian government continued to support the U.S. effort to persuade Israel to implement the plan for autonomy for the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the process, Egypt resumed its historical role as the leader of Middle Eastern diplomacy. Mubarak supported the regional peace process and the 1993 accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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People have been here
since August 31st. 1999
Web Master: Wa'el Tahtawi
wtahtawi@yahoo.com
Date Last Modified: 01/01/2007 (Happy New Year :-)
All rights reserved 1999-2007
gypt
is a nation occupying the
northeastern corner of Africa, the SINAI Peninsula in
adjacent Southwest Asia, and some islands in the Gulf of
Suez and the Red Sea. It is bounded by the Mediterranean
Sea on the north, Sudan on the south, the Red
Sea and (Palestine - Israel) on the east, and
Libya on the west. The name Egypt is derived from the
Greek word Aegyptus, which was taken from the
ancient Egyptian term Hik up tah ("House of the Spirit").
The term was used to designate the city of MEMPHIS, Egypt's
earliest capital.
