Located on both the African continent and the Asian continent, Egypt is connected to both through the Sinai Peninsula. Towards the north is the Mediterranean, to the northeast is the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the east is the Red Sea, to the south is Sudan, and to the west is Libya.

Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are all separated by the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast. Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city, is an important industrial and tourism center on the Mediterranean coast, while Cairo is the country's capital and largest metropolis. Egypt is the 14th most populous nation in the world, with close to 100 million people calling it home.

Along the Nile Delta, the history of Egypt may be traced back to the sixth and fourth millennia BCE, making it one of the countries with the longest histories. Ancient Egypt is sometimes referred to be "the birthplace of civilization" due to its early advances in writing, agriculture, urbanization, organized religion, and centralized governance.

The Giza Necropolis and the Great Sphinx, as well as the remains of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, are all testaments to this history and continue to attract a great deal of attention from scholars and tourists alike. The lengthy and rich cultural history of Egypt is an essential aspect of the country's national identity, and it is a reflection of Egypt's unique transcontinental position as a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and North African country.

An early and vital hub for Christianity, Egypt was extensively Islamized in the seventh century and now is a mostly Sunni Muslim nation with a sizeable Christian minority and other, less often practiced religions.

Independent as a monarchy from the British Empire in 1922, modern Egypt may trace its roots back to that year. Egypt became a republic after the 1952 revolution, and it combined with Syria in 1958 to establish the United Arab Republic, which later broke apart in 1961. Egypt's political and socioeconomic stability was severely tested in the second half of the twentieth century, when the country fought four wars with Israel (1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973) and periodically occupied the Gaza Strip.

In 1978, Egypt formally recognized Israel and withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip as part of the Camp David Accords. After the Arab Spring sparked the Egyptian revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypt was plunged into a prolonged era of political upheaval. A number of human rights groups have accused Egypt's current government, a semi-presidential republic headed by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, of being authoritarian or leading an authoritarian regime.

Over the course of a lengthy period of occupation, Egyptian identity shifted to include new religious beliefs and practices, such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, as well as a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendent, Egyptian Arabic, which is based on many Ancient Egyptian phrases.

Early 19th-century scholar Rifa'a al-writings Tahtawi's sparked a newfound fascination with Egypt's ancient past and introduced Enlightenment ideals to Egypt's populace. Tahtawi, together with education reformer Ali Mubarak, established a native Egyptology school that drew its inspiration from the works of medieval Egyptian academics like Suyuti and Maqrizi. These men delved deeply into Egypt's history, language, and antiquities.

Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Muhammad Loutfi Goumah, Tawfiq el-Hakim, Louis Awad, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein, and Mahmoud Mokhtar were all important figures in Egypt's renaissance, which reached its zenith in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They pioneered a progressive course for Egypt, one that emphasized individual liberty, secularism, and trust in the power of science.