Arab Republic of Egypt
Jumhuriat Misr al-'Arabiyah
CAPITAL: Cairo (Al-Qahira)
FLAG: The flag is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes—red, white, and black—with the national emblem in the center white stripe.
ANTHEM: The Arab Republic of Egypt Hymn.
MONETARY UNIT: The Egyptian pound (E£) is a paper currency of 100 piasters or 1,000 milliemes. There are coins of 1, 5, 10, and 20 piasters and notes of 25 and 50 piasters and 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 1000 pounds. E£1 = $0.1706 (or $1 = E£5.86) as of May 2003.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: The metric system is the official standard, but various local units also are used: 1 feddan, consisting of 333.3 kassabah, equals 0.42 hectare (1.038 acres).
HOLIDAYS: New Year's Day, 1 January; Evacuation Day, 18 June; Revolution Day, 23 July; Armed Forces Day, 6 October; Popular Resistance Day, 24 October; Victory Day, 23 December. Movable holidays include Sham an-Nassim (Breath of Spring), of ancient origin, as well as such Muslim religious holidays as 'Id al-Fitr, 'Id al-'Adha', and the 1st of Muharram (Muslim New Year).
TIME: 2 PM = noon GMT.
Ethnic groups of Eastern Hamitic stock make up about 99% of the population of Egypt; these include Egyptians, Bedouins, and Berbers. They are a product of the intermixture of ancient Egyptians with the invaders of many millennia from various parts of Asia and Africa. The remaining 1% of the population is made up of minorities, including mainly Nubians, Armenians, Greeks, and other Europeans, primarily Italian and French.
There are no forests in Egypt. In 2000, Egypt imported $796.3 million in forest products. The construction and furniture-making industries rely on wood imports. Furniture production engages about 40,000 persons and is concentrated in the Damietta Governorate in the northern part of the Nile Delta. Softwood products come from Sweden, Finland, and Russia; hardwood products from Western Europe.
Egypt has no territories or colonies.