Map of Egypt

Egypt is one of the cradles of civilization in the Middle East. Traces of early man were found in Egypt dating back as early as 700,000 years ago. Egypt and ancient Canaan to the north probably served as the bridges by which successive waves of humans: homo erectus, homo habilis, homo neanderthalensis and homo sapiens, evidently migrated out of Africa and into Mesopotamia and Europe. Ancient Egyptians used a phonetic-pictograph writing called hieroglyphics by the Ancient Greeks. This system evolved from portrayal of pictures of objects to using stylized representation of objects to represent sound combinations and compose words, to a phonetic alphabet much like our own. Ancient Egypt boasted considerable achievements in art, medicine, astronomy and literature, and was the hub of civilization in much of the Near East and North Africa. The unique history of ancient Egypt and visible monuments to that history helped Egyptians preserve a distinct national consciousness, and to remain a separate entity during the years of Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman conquest.