Situated in the Middle East, North of Africa, Egypt is the land of iconic pyramids and archaeological treasures. Its borders touch those of Israel, Libya and Sudan and its capital, Cairo is an open museum of pyramids, monuments as well as the famous Egyptian Museum, which exhibits over 130,000 examples of sculptures and art pieces from the Pharaonic and Byzantine periods as well as the Mummy Room and famous Tutankhamun exhibition.
Most of Egypt’s land is covered by flat desert offering scarce vegetation, with a few towns developing around oases scattered in the desert. The Sinai Peninsula lies to the east while to the south the Aswan Dam and the cataracts of the River Nile offer some spectacular landscape and views.
One of Egypt’s most visited sites is Luxor with its ancient city of Thebes and spectacular Temple of Karnak full of treasures, statues and obelisks. The Valley of the Kings is the site of painted tombs of kings and queens while Aswan offers beautiful landscapes of botanical gardens along the Nile.
Abu Simbel is another magnificent archaeological site, with the glorious Sun Temple of Ramses II discovered in the early 19th century. Other Nile archaeological sites are the Kom ombo (city of gold) and Edfu with their pharaonic temples.
Egypt also offers some magnificent coastal areas on the Red Sea, notably the Ras Mohamed National Park teeming with hundreds of different species of fish, multicolored coral and crystal clear waters, an ideal site for snorkeling and scuba diving. All along the coast Egypt boast magnificent beaches and underwater spectacles as well other water activities including windsurfing.
The best time to visit Egypt is from February to April and October to November in order to avoid the extremely hot temperatures, especially in the desert areas and the archaeological sites.
The people from Egypt are called Egyptians.
