About Egypt

The Conference will be held in the beautiful and historic city, situated in the heart of Egypt. Cairo, capital of Egypt, is well-known for its pyramids and other historic buildings, its galleries and museums, its shops and restaurants. The attractions of Egypt are numerous – its hospitality, its centuries of history, its natural beauty – desert, rolling hills and valleys, River Nile and craggy mountains.
Some participants may wish to arrive in Cairo a little earlier and join the optional social program for early arrivers.

History…
Herodotus in the 5th century BC expressed his admiration for the health of the Egyptians, saying that they were the healthiest in the world, that “Egyptians are different from other people – they take their meals outside their homes, while they attend to their needs inside”. Diodorus Siculus in the first century BC stated that “the whole manner of life of the Egyptians was so wholesome, that it would appear as though it had been arranged according to the rules of a learned physician rather than those of a legislator”.
Egypt was created by the Nile, determined by the desert and shaped by its people.

To think of Egypt is to summon up images of pyramids, temples and tombs. The inner eye feasts on image of unparalleled artistry: the timeless diorite statue of Khafre, elegant wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari, the funerary mask of Tutankhamen.
Perhaps the palm-fringed Nile springs to mind, or the exquisite Islamic monuments of medieval Cairo, or even the overgrown mega city of today’s Cairo.
Ancient Egyptians called Egypt as Kmt, which means the black land or the fertile cultivated land. This name was later modified by the Copts of Egypt to Kymy.

When lexander the Great conquered Egypt and visited its capital Hat-Ka-Ptah (i.e The temple of the double of the God Ptah – now Mit Rahina which the Ptolomes called Memphis) he admired the name of the city, and used it for the whole country. The sound “H” could not be pronounced by the Greeks, and so they modified the name to Aeguptos.
The letter “S” at the end of the word signifies the masculine. When the Arabs entered Egypt they adopted the word Aeguptos for the inhabitants of the land, and called them Gibt, later modified to Qibit, which the European travelers later modified to Copts from which the word Egypt evolved.
The Old Testament mentioned the country as Mitsraim in Hebrew. The Quran mentioned the name Misr seven times denoting Egypt. In one of his Traditions.

 The Prophet Mohamed recommended: “Should you enter Misr take good care of her inhabitants”.

In early times, Egyptians would have noticed that bodies left in the desert remained remarkably preserved in the hot, dry climate. Perhaps this inspired them to conceive the notion of an afterlife, a theme that recurs in Christian and Islamic times. The desert had a profound influence on the growth of early Christianity and led to developments that, in turn, shaped Western Christian belief and practice. The first anchorites lived in Egyptian deserts, and the first monasteries were founded there.

As Egyptian cultures grew and prospered, they brought into being essential elements of civilization that we take for granted today.
In 1800, Egypt counted 2.5 million inhabitants; in 1986, 48.3 million and in 2003 almost 70 million. Ninety-seven percent of Egyptians live on 4 percent of the country’s area. The population density in Egypt is 59 citizens per square kilometer; whereas in Cairo it is 31,697 citizens per sq. km., which probably makes it the most crowded city in the world. Like the Nile, Egypt is an endless and contrasting stream of life; and Cairo the megapolis at the junction between Upper and Lower Egypt, has become at once the focus, mirror and kaleidoscope of Egyptian life, incomparable in its diversity.

Cairo was built by the Fatemid leader Gawhar El Seqelli in A.D. 969., i.e. 1,030 years ago. Today, with a population of about 16 million (a number that decreases to about 12 million at night when day laborers return to their homes in areas outside the city), Cairo is the greatest metropolis in Africa. Established quarters, such as the traditional Islamic city, maintain their identity within the European-style metropolis. The city contains many cultures: Pharaonic, Ptolomic, Coptic, Muslim and modern. Copts constitute about 8 percent of the population. Al Azhar University, which was devoted to the Shiíite branch of Islam, is considered the oldest university in the world. And the city boasts 2,782 mosques and 183 churches. Cairenes are religious, monotheistic, good-natured, adaptable and hospitable.