Short answers, pulled from the story.
Egypt spans the northeast corner of Africa and the southwest corner of Asia by way of the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan and the Sahara to the south, and Libya to the west.
Egypt has over 107 million inhabitants, making it the most populous country in the Arab world and the third-most populous in Africa. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural centre, while Alexandria is the second-largest city.
The Free Officers Movement, led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, staged a coup on the 22nd and the 23rd of July 1952, and King Farouk abdicated. By the 18th of June 1953 the monarchy was abolished and Egypt was declared a republic.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi leads Egypt as president. He won the presidential election in June 2014 with 96.1% of the vote, and in December 2023 he won a third six-year term.
Because of the extreme aridity of Egypt's climate, about 99% of the population uses roughly 5.5% of the land, concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta. The rest of the country is largely desert with a few scattered oases.
Islam is the state religion, and an estimated 85 to 90% of Egyptians are Muslim, with 10 to 15% identified as Coptic Christians. Egypt has the largest Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa, centred on the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
The Suez Canal opened in November 1869 and runs 193.30 km from Port Said to Port Tawfiq without locks. In 2023 it generated a record 9.4 billion dollars in revenue for Egypt.