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General Resources: Egypt

Created and maintained by the
 African & Middle Eastern Division,
Collections and Services Directorate

Egypt is an Arab nation in the northeastern corner of Africa. The country receives hardly any rain, and its people could not exist without the life-giving Nile River. The mighty Nile provides nearly all the country’s water.

Ninety-nine per cent of the Egyptian people live along the Nile or near the Suez Canal, Egypt’s important waterway. Cairo, Egypt’s capital, is the largest city in both Africa and the Arab world.

The history of Egypt dates back more than 5,000 years. In prehistoric time, great cities and kingdoms grew up along the Nile.

Egypt is a democratic socialist state called the Arab Republic of Egypt. The National Democratic Party is by far Egypt’s largest political party. Arabic is the official language of Egypt. Islam, the Muslim religion, is the official religion of Egypt. Copts are the largest minority in the country. Around ninety percent of the population are Muslims, almost all of whom belong to the Sunni branch of Islam.

Cotton is Egypt’s most important crop, and the country is a leading cotton-producing nation.

Every year, the wonders of Egypt’s colorful past attract more than a million visitors from all parts of the world. They visit the pyramids and Great Sphinx in Jizah, and the ancient tombs in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

For Library of Congress contact information and materials, consult the Egypt Country page of the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division or The Library of Congress Online Catalog. To track bills and other Congressional materials having to do with the topic, consult the Library’s Thomas legislative Information page.

These sites have been chosen for their utility in providing information, directories and portals on all aspects of Egypt life and culture. As the links to Egypt are sometimes inactive, we recommend that you try again if you are not successful the first time.


Al-Ahram Weekly Front Page (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/index.htm)
English language weekly serving the Arab world with a selection of commentary.

Al-Bab.com (The Arab Gateway) (http://www.al-bab.com)
The Arab Gateway aims to introduce non-Arabs to the Arabs and their culture. Arab Gateway consists mainly of links to other sites and pages on the internet but also contains some original material. The links are presented in an organised, structured way which is intended to make information easy to find.

Al-Bawaba
(http://albawaba.com/en/countries/Egypt)
Major portal site that links a number of other websites on all the Arab countries. Contains up-to-date information on the political, business, social, cultural and religious aspects of a particular country. Click on the name of the country for information in English and Arabic.

Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (http://www.arabfund.org/)
Search for information on projects funded throughout the Arab world. Its function is to assist the economic and social development of Arab countries through (1) financing development projects, with preference given to overall Arab development and to joint Arab projects; (2) encouraging the investment of private and public funds in Arab projects; and (3) providing technical assistance services for Arab economic and social development.

Arab German Consulting (http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/egypt.htm)
Major portal site on the Arab countries. Includes up-to-date information on the government, history, economy, education systems.

Arab Net (http://www.arab.net/egypt/index.html)
Major Arab website that contains information on the government, history, geography, business, culture, transport, tourism of each country, and provides links to other relevant websites.

Arab and World Newspapers (http://www.arab2.com/newspapers.htm)
"Complete List of News Sources in Arabic Language in one Page Sorted by Country."

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina ( http://www.bibalex.org/English/index.aspx)
The New Library of Alexandria, the New Bibliotheca Alexandrina is dedicated to recapture the spirit of openness and scholarship of the original Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

CIA -- The World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html)
An annual publication of the CIA, contains up-to-date information on all aspects of the political, social and military history of a particular country.

Country Reports.Org (http://www.countryreports.org/country.aspx?countryid=72&countryName=Egypt)
Searching this site results in a list of recent documents from a number of web sites concerning media activities and press freedom in many countries.

Development Gateway (http://www.developmentgateway.org/)
“The Development Gateway helps communities, organizations, and individuals build partnerships, share ideas, and work together to reduce poverty.” The Development Gateway is an independent not-for-profit organization initially developed in the World Bank. Search by development projects as well as by country to identify additional web sites and documents.

Egypt State Information Service (http://www.sis.gov.eg/)
Detailed information on politics, culture, history, economy and tourism, as well as news articles, video and audio broadcasts and daily news updates from the Egypt State Information Service.

Egypt Centre [The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities] (http://www.swan.ac.uk/egypt/)
The Egypt Centre consists of part of the collection of the pharmacist Sir Henry Wellcome from the turn of the 20th century. It has been in the keeping of University of Wales, Swansea, since the early 1970s.

Egypt Daily (http://www.egyptdaily.com/)
"Latest news from the World News Network." A news site containing the latest news, current affairs and information on Egypt.

Egyptian Government Services Portal (http://www.egypt.gov.eg/english/)
Egypt’s government services portal providing information related to more than 700 services provided by the various ministries.

EgyptSearch.com - Egypt Information Search (http://www.egyptsearch.com/)
Egypt’s search engine, providing links to products and services in the categories of Arts & Humanities, Books, Business and Economy, Education, Entertainment, Government, Health, News / Media, Regional, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Sports & Recreation, Travel.

Encyclopedia.com (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Egypt.aspx)
From the Electronic Library, searching the Encyclopedia.com by country provides numerous narrative articles on its history, culture, politics.

Fares.net English: (http://www.fares.net/en/) Arabic: (http://www.fares.net/ar/)
Directory of websites on a wide range of subjects including tourism, entertainment, culture, the media, news and business in English and Arabic. Search under the name of the country.

Governments on the WWW:Egypt (http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/eg.html)
Comprehensive database of governmental institutions on the World Wide Web: parliaments, ministries, offices, law courts, embassies, city councils, public broadcasting corporations, central banks, multi-governmental institutions etc. Includes also political parties.

Hejleh Egypt Country Study: The Country and People of Egypt
(http://www.hejleh.com/countries/egypt.html)
Important portal site on Egypt that covers every major aspect of its history, culture, economy, education, media organizations, political institutions. It also has links to every major Egyptian city.

Infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/)
Part of the electronic Learning Network, this homepage allows searches by country which yield articles in almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical works, etc. Additional reference links are provided as well.

Islamic Calendar Converter (http://www.oriold.unizh.ch/static/hegira.html)
This English language website not only converts the present Gregorian date, in common use in the West, to its modern Hijra equivalent (in common use in the Islamic World), it also provides a mechanism, based on software developed by Waleed A. Muhanna, to convert all past dates from Gregorian-Hijra or Hijra-Gregorian.

Jobs In Egypt ( http://www.jobsinegypt.com/Job/index.asp)
“Jobs In Egypt provides you with the most comprehensive suite of career building tools available.”

Lesson Designer, Teachers, Arabic Education Delivery Tools, Koran (Quran) Databases and search
(http://www.readverse.com/)
Read~Verse, a California company is offering a free search facility for the entire Koran in Arabic and English.

Lonely Planet - Destinations (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/africa/egypt)
Search by country to find information on travel, attractions, history, culture, and environment of that location.

Middle East – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/global/index.cfm?fa=proj&id=107&proj=zme)
The main feature of the Carnegie Arabic Web Portal is the Arabic-language version of the Arab Reform Bulletin, an online monthly journal on the latest political reform developments from Arab and Western perspectives. Also included are Arabic translations of select Carnegie Papers, commentaries on the Middle East and related subjects such as nuclear nonproliferation, as well as writings originally published in Arabic.

The Middle East Times: News from Egypt and the Region (http://www.metimes.com/)
Independent news weekly about the Middle East region. Covers world, regional, business, IT, cultural & entertainment news, as well as news about women, editorial opinions and letters to the editor.

Middle East News and Information Links (http://www.mideastweb.org/mewnewslinks.html)
Links to online MidEast news, government press agencies and more. Site is ad-free!

OneWorld.net (http://www.oneworld.net/)
"We bring together the latest news and views from over 1,600 organizations promoting human rights awareness and fighting poverty worldwide." Searchable by country, regions and topics. Includes current headlines and special reports.

Princeton University Library: Near Eastern Studies Resources (http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epressman/neareast.htm)
Princeton Library’s site dedicated to Near Eastern Studies provides not only invaluable information about Princeton’s programs and collections, but also extensive links to sites (libraries, universities, institutes, think tanks, directories, gateways, newspapers, etc.) around the world concerning all aspects of the discipline.

United Nations (http://www.un.org)
The official site of the United Nations provides articles, reports, etc. in several languages on all aspects of the initiatives and mission of that organization as well as on the contemporary life, culture, society, international relations, etc. of all the countries and peoples of the world.

United Nations ReliefWeb (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?openForm)
“ReliefWeb is a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)...serving the information needs of the humanitarian relief community.” Offers news updates to crisis situations around the world and includes information about refugee camps and other relief efforts.

United States. Agency for International Development. Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) (http://dec.usaid.gov/)
“ The Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) is the largest online resource for USAID funded, international development documentation. The purpose of the DEC is to strengthen USAID's development projects, activities, and programs by making ... development experience documents available to USAID offices and mission staff, PVO's, NGO's, universities and research institutions, developing countries, and the public worldwide.”

United States. Library of Congress Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/egtoc.html)
A series published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Studies Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army.

United States. Library of Congress. Virtual Reference Shelf (http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html)
The Library of Congress has mounted this useful site on its home page to give scholars and researchers access to common online sources which are excellent for initial stages of research. These online tools are organized by subject and format, e.g., "Almanacs and Fast Facts," "Directories," "Libraries," etc.

University of Texas Middle East Network Information Center: Egypt
(http://menic.utexas.edu/Countries_and_Regions/Egypt/)
Egypt-centric resources on an excellent Middle East website on mideast government, politics, news and media, education and the social sciences.

www.Virtual-Egypt.com (http://www.virtual-egypt.com/)
Educational, multimedia resource about ancient Egypt.

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  Library of Congress >> Global Gateway >> Portals to the World >> Egypt
  June 5, 2008
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