Africare-Egypt

REGION: North Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Cairo
POPULATION: 72,642,000
LAND AREA: The size of Texas and New Mexico combined

Perhaps best known for its ancient civilization ― a unified kingdom ruled by a series of dynasties for 3,000 years, beginning in about 3200 B.C. ― Egypt plays a central role in the politics of the Middle East today. For example, among Arab nations, Egypt's economy is the second largest after Saudi Arabia; and Egypt's rapidly growing population is the largest in the Arab world. Overall, Egypt is a vast desert plateau. It is bisected by the fertile Nile River valley and delta, where most of the country's economic activity takes place. In southern Egypt, the Aswan High Dam (completed in 1971) and the resultant Lake Nasser have added to the country's otherwise-limited arable land. A primary challenge faced by Egypt is environmental destruction: agricultural lands lost to urbanization and sand storms, spreading desertification, water pollution and stresses resulting from rapid population growth. Most Egyptians have a relatively low standard of living. Government policies over the past several decades have sought to address those problems, and Egypt's export sector is considered "a bright spot" by international analysts.