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 earliest developments of writing,
agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government.[22] Egypt was
an early and important centre of Christianity, but largely adopted Islam in the
seventh century. 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 it 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 occupyed 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
human rights record. Islam is the official religion of Egypt, and Arabic is its
official language.[1] 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 territory, are sparsely inhabited. About 43% of Egypt's residents
live across the country's urban areas,[23] 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 world, and a middle power worldwide.[24] 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 capita.[25] 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.