The Nile River is the milestone of the history of Egypt. The furtile coasts of the river gave an impulse to the dawn of the kingdom- the melting pot of our civilisations, the kingdom that has invented the written language and erected the first stone monuments. The river has been the source of the economic, social, politic and religious life since the days of the first settlement.   About 5000 years ago two independent Kingdoms, two  « Niles », red and black were unified according to the order of  Menes, the founder of the first dynasty of the Pharaohs.

The Pharaohs were considered to be godlike, they ruled the well-structured society. The first pyramide was constructed in about the 27-th century B.C.; the monument became even more impressive during next 5 centuries. The 4-th dynasty - Khufu, Khafre and Mycerinus enjoyed the culmination of the  pharaonic power ; at this period the famous pyramids at Giza were erected.  The 6-th and the 7-th dynasties conquered the new lands and extended the borders of the Kingdom, established small principalities, and built the second metropolis: Herakleopolis (near the Suez Canal); the rivalry caused the civil war.

An independent Kingdom was established in Thebes (Luxor) and Montuhotep II turned to be the unique Pharaoh of Egypt. From 1550 to 1069 B.C. The new Kingdom enjoyed the period of prosperity during the reign of Tuthmosis I, the first Pharaoh who was burried in the Pharaoh’s valley; his daughter Hatshepsut, one of the few women-pharaohs of Egypt; and Tuthmosis III, the most famous conqueror, who extended the borders of Egypt to Asia.

 

Amenhotep IV renounced learning of the traditional theology (amon) and took the title of Akhenaton in honour of Aten, the God and Disk of the Sun; together with his wife Nefertiti he established the new Akhenaton, the city, dedicated to the Aten. The son of another wife of Akhenaton, Toutankhamon, ruled in Egypt about nine years. After that Egypt was run by the following descendants : Ramses I, II and III, and Seti I who reestablished the ancient theology and the cult of Amon-Re, constructed the great monuments and temples in honour of the God. But the empire was at the point of collapse, the social strata were completely destroyed ; in 332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and established the new capital Alexandria.

 

In the epoch of Ptolemy I, Alexandria became a big city. The Ptolemies ruled in Ehypt during 300 years, but this period was marked by the rivalry among the noble, many people were exiled or assassinated. At this particular time another empire, The Roman empire was beginning to take power, and it was interested to conquer the territory of Egypt.

 

From 51 to 48 B.C. Egypt was governed by Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra VIII, when  Julius Caesar sent there his roman rival: Pompey. He was killed near Alexandria. When Caesar came to Egypt, he diposed of  Ptolemy XIII  and declared  Ptolemy XIV the king and became a lover of Cleopatra. In 47 B.C. Cleopatra gave birth to the son of Caesar. A year after Julius Caesar’s assassination Mark Antony came from Rome to become a lover of Cleopatra too. After the defeat of their navy under commission of  Octave in Actium in 31 B.C. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt turned to be a a province of Rome.

 

Despite of a sort of dissipation of Roman empire if the III-rd and IV-th centuries that facilitated the invasions of the Nubians, Africans from the North and the Persians, the situation in Egypt was comparatively stable till 640 when the Arabs came. The Arabs brought the Islam to Ehypt; the Fatimides ruled in Egypt and established the city of Al-Qahira (Cairo). Egypt enjoyed the period of prosperity under the Fatimides and Cairo became a metropolis.

 

During the epoch of crusades of the XI-th century the christians occupied the major part of Egypt ; later the territory was reconquered by Saladin in 1187 with the help of the mercenary turks - the mamelouks, who overthrew their employers and became the governers of Egypt for the next 250 years till the time the Turks came in 1517. The Ottoman empire confined itself by collecting taxes.

In 1789 Napoleon drove the Turks out of Egypt, his military campaign laid the foundation of the egyptology, since it was the first real scientific expedition. Some time after the English  took control of the territory, but very soon they had to leave it being expelled by the Ottoman empire. In 1869 after the opening of the Suez Canal the immense national debt of Egypt facilitate the military invasion of France and Great Britain in 1879 and put an end to Turkish yoke. After the World War II Egypt has become one of the founders of the Arab League. In 1952 colonel  Abdel Gamal Nasser with a group of officers-nationalists carried out a coup d’etat, nationalized the Suez Canal, and made a stout resistance to the troops of France and Great Britain. Repudiated by UNO, the two great powers withdrew their troops.

After several months of tension, in June, 5^th  of  1967, Egypt and Israel broke out the war (the war of 6 days). Having destroyed the Egypt air-force and invaded  Sinai, Israel bloked the Suez Canal. Anwar Sadat, the successor of Nasser (died in 1970), attacked unexpectedly the Israel army during the holiday Yom Kipour, in October, 6^th  of 1973. But the Egyptian army was defeated again. In 1877 Sadat started to negotiate with Israel for peace; the negotiations resulted in the Camp David Agreement appointing the restauration of  Sinai and common consent. This agreement was considered  a sort of treason by the radical Arabs, and as a result, Sadat was assassinated in October, 6^th of 1981.

 

Husni Mubarak, the ex-vice-president of Sadat, took the oath and became the president of the country. Owing to his irenic diplomacy, he succeeded in stabilizing of the relations with Israel and the Arabic countries of the Middle East. Nevertheless, his politics proved to be dangerous, since some murder attempts took place.  The relations with the countries of the West became stable on condition that Egypt should join the coalition against Irak in 1991.

 

In 1992 the islamic fundamentalists broke out violent destabilizing activities : they attacked some tourists  and Egyptian security forces. In 1995 they organized an attempt to assassinate their president Moubarak;  the massacre of  70 persons, tourists mostly, at the foot of the pyramids set the population of Egypt on the alert.  

 

The unemployment rate decreasing, the economic  growth, the notable rise in the sphere of education and the collapse of the fundamentalistic influence brought the stability to Egypt and made the country one of the world-famous resorts.