48 Fun Facts About Egypt

Which queen was the last active ruler of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty?

Cleopatra: Octavian beat her and Mark Antony at Actium in 31 BC, and after her death Egypt became a province of Rome.

Which river runs the length of Egypt into the Mediterranean?

Nile: its yearly flood left fertile silt along its banks, turning dry land into farmland.

Which animal, sacred to the goddess Bastet, did ancient Egyptians mummify in huge numbers?

Cat: Herodotus wrote that when a household cat died, everyone living in the house shaved off their eyebrows in mourning.

Which scholar used the Rosetta Stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Jean-François Champollion: he worked out that many of the signs stood for sounds, not only for ideas.

Which religion is Egypt's official state religion?

Islam: Egypt came under Muslim rule when Amr ibn al-As's Arab army took it from the Byzantine Empire between 639 and 642.

What is the currency of Egypt?

Pound: in 2016 Egypt let it float, as part of reforms backed by a $12 billion IMF loan.

Which Egyptian site is the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World?

Giza Necropolis: its Great Pyramid was once cased in smooth white limestone, but nearly all of that casing has since been stripped away.

What is Egypt's second-largest city?

Alexandria: after Alexander the Great died, his general Ptolemy seized his body, and it was eventually entombed in the city Alexander had founded.

Egypt borders which country to the west?

Libya: a line of Libyan chieftains who had settled in Egypt later took its throne, founding the 22nd Dynasty.

Which Egyptian scored twice against Congo in 2017 to send Egypt to the World Cup?

Mohamed Salah: Congo had equalised with three minutes left, before his late penalty won the game 2–1.

Which sea along Egypt's east coast is famed for its coral reefs?

Red Sea: it fills a rift where the African and Arabian plates are slowly pulling apart.

Which goddess was the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus?

Isis: her cult spread far beyond Egypt, and devotees across the Roman Empire worshipped her.

Which president was forced out by the 2011 Egyptian revolution?

Hosni Mubarak: a court sentenced him to life in prison in 2012 over protesters' deaths, but he was finally acquitted in 2017.

Who became president of Egypt in 2014?

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi: Mohamed Morsi had promoted him to defence minister in 2012, and a year later Sisi led the military's removal of Morsi.

Anwar Sadat signed a 1979 peace treaty with which country?

Israel: in response the Arab League suspended Egypt and moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, readmitting Egypt only in 1989.

Which Cairo plaza was the focus of the 2011 protests?

The name means Liberation Square; it was briefly renamed for Sadat in 1981 but nobody used the new name.

Which Egyptian leader nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956, provoking the Suez Crisis?

Gamal Abdel Nasser: he vowed that canal tolls would pay for his dam, and the crisis left him a hero across the Arab world.

Who invaded Egypt in 1798 and won the Battle of the Pyramids?

Napoleon Bonaparte: within weeks Nelson destroyed his fleet at Aboukir Bay, leaving the French army cut off in Egypt.

Which Egyptian writer won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Naguib Mahfouz: in 1994 an extremist stabbed him in the neck, but he survived the attack.

Egypt joined which country in 1958 to form the United Arab Republic?

Syria: it pulled out after a military coup in 1961, yet Egypt kept calling itself the United Arab Republic until 1971.

Which country helped Egypt build its High Dam, completed in 1970?

Soviet Union: Moscow stepped in after the United States and Britain withdrew their offer to finance the dam in 1956.

Mohamed Morsi, elected president in 2012, belonged to which movement?

Muslim Brotherhood: after the military removed Morsi in 2013, the government banned the movement and declared it a terrorist organisation.

The city of Luxor was formerly known by what name?

Thebes: once Egypt's capital, it was sacked in the 660s BC by the army of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

Whose penalty did Egypt save first in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations final?

Didier Drogba: he had also sent a late chance over from six yards, and Egypt went on to win the shootout 4–2 in Cairo.

Which university in Cairo grew out of a 10th-century mosque?

Al-Azhar: in 2019 its Grand Imam, Ahmed el-Tayeb, signed a joint declaration on human fraternity with Pope Francis.

Which king abdicated after the Free Officers coup of 1952?

Farouk: he abdicated in favour of his son, but within a year the monarchy was abolished and Egypt became a republic.

Which Egyptian dish of lentils, rice and pasta is UNESCO-listed heritage?

Koshary: it started out as cheap, filling food for the poor, and today it is often called Egypt's national dish.

Which Frenchman formed the Compagnie de Suez in 1858 to dig the Suez Canal?

Ferdinand de Lesseps: his later attempt to dig a Panama Canal collapsed amid disease and debt, and the company was wound up.

Amr Shabana, Ali Farag and Ramy Ashour were world number ones in which sport?

Squash: in 2017 Ali Farag and his wife, Nour El Tayeb, won the US Open men's and women's titles on the same day.

Who became the first president of Egypt in 1953?

Muhammad Naguib: he lost a power struggle with the other Free Officers and was forced out of the presidency in 1954.

The Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1517 by defeating which rulers?

Mamluk Sultanate: the Mamluks kept local power under the Ottomans until Muhammad Ali had their leaders massacred at Cairo's Citadel in 1811.

Cairo became the capital of which caliphate in the 10th century?

Fatimid: their caliphate ended in 1171, when Saladin took over Egypt and restored allegiance to the Sunni caliph in Baghdad.

Mount Sinai is Egypt's most famous peak, but which nearby mountain is its highest?

Mount Catherine: by Christian tradition, angels carried the martyred St Catherine's body to these Sinai heights.

Which singer, nicknamed the 'Star of the East', gave famous concerts on the first Thursday of each month?

Umm Kulthum: after Egypt's 1967 defeat in the Six-Day War, she toured abroad and gave her concert proceeds to the war effort.

On which day is the spring festival Sham Ennessim observed?

Easter Monday: Egyptians of all faiths mark it with picnics in parks and by painting and swapping boiled eggs.

Which Egyptian actor played the title role in Doctor Zhivago?

Omar Sharif: born Michel Chalhoub, he changed his name and his religion to marry the Egyptian film star Faten Hamama.

Which Egyptian-born scientist won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

Ahmed Zewail: his ultrashort laser flashes let chemists watch atoms move during a chemical reaction as it happened.

Where did the 2021 Golden Parade take 22 royal mummies?

Museum of Egyptian Civilization: officials staged the televised parade in hopes of reviving Egypt's tourism industry.

Which Egyptian diplomat served as UN Secretary-General from 1992 to 1996?

Boutros Boutros-Ghali: he sought a second term, but the United States vetoed his reappointment in the Security Council.

Which British prime minister ordered Egypt's occupation in 1882?

William Gladstone: in his Midlothian campaign he had attacked Disraeli's foreign policy, yet his own government then seized Egypt.

Which country left joint Anglo-Egyptian rule to become independent in 1956?

Sudan: the condominium followed Kitchener's 1898 victory at Omdurman, where Anglo-Egyptian forces crushed the Mahdist army.

Which composer wrote Aida, the opera set in ancient Egypt that premiered in Cairo in 1871?

Giuseppe Verdi: the Franco-Prussian War held up the sets and costumes in Paris, so the Cairo premiere was delayed.

Which king tried to make a single sun god the centre of Egyptian worship?

Akhenaten: the kings who came after him treated him as an enemy and tried to erase him from history.

Which plant did ancient Egyptians turn into sheets to write on?

Papyrus: an old tale, passed on by Pliny, says Pergamon developed parchment because it couldn't get papyrus, though historians doubt the story.

The British exiled Saad Zaghloul to which island in 1919, sparking a revolution?

Malta: within weeks Britain freed him and his colleagues, and they sailed from Malta to Paris to press Egypt's case.

Which energy company discovered the giant Zohr gas field in 2015?

The find helped end the six-hour daily blackouts Egypt had suffered in the summer of 2014.

The Siwi language of Siwa Oasis belongs to which language family?

Berber: Siwi has no official recognition and isn't taught in schools or used in the media, so it is classed as endangered.

Which Egyptian resort city hosted the 2022 COP27 climate summit?

Sharm El Sheikh: the summit ended with a deal to set up a fund for loss and damage suffered by vulnerable countries.