The third main racial grouping in Egypt is comprised of the Nubian peoples who lived for thousands of years in their own land along the Nile, called Nuba, which overlapped from Upper Egypt into northern Sudan. Most of Nuba was flooded in the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser with the construction of the Aswan high dam and the creation of the artificial Lake Nasser. The Nubians were resettled by the government but much of their ancient culture and stunning architectural tradition has been lost.
For millenia wave upon wave of conquerors has passed through Egypt, leaving traces in their descendants. Romans, Greeks and, more recently the Turks, Circassians (Mamluks) and even French and English have intermarried with the Egyptians, adding further to the cosmopolitan melting pot. For half a century the rural population has shifted to the main urban centres in search of employment.
Until today nearly half the population reside in overcrowded cities. To remedy this, the Egyptian government has inaugurated a series of incentives to try and lure many Egyptians away from Cairo and Alexandria. Part of this programme includes the construction of industrial cities located well outside the main centres and the programme seems to be meeting with a measure of success.
There are a number of other small distinct minorities including Berbers, most of whom live around Siwa oasis, and the 7 million Copts who share the same racial background as their indigenous Muslim countrymen but who were among those who remained wedded to their ancient Christian beliefs and traditions.
Language
Arabic is the country's official language. The Egyptian dialect is distinct from all others and, because of the country's dominance of the media (television, cinema, radio and music), the most recognizable and universal. Arab popular singers from as far afield as Morocco and Syria, often emigrate to Egypt and sing in the Egyptian dialect instead of their own.
Culture
Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilisations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt.
Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a centre of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organisations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed El Baradei of the IAEA.
Renaissance
In the mid-nineteenth century, Rifa'a et-Tahtawi started the Egyptian Renaissance, which renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egypt to Enlightenment principals. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. Egypt's renaissance reached a peak through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa and Taha Hussein. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress.
Arts
The Egyptians were one of the first major civilisations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo in fact has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East." To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved world-wide fame.
Literature
Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi.
Music
Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities.
Festivals
Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as "mulids". They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavour in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Baramouda (April) and Bashans (May) following Easter Sunday.
Beekeeping
Beehives have been in use in Egypt for almost 5000 years. This is an ancient art which has influenced the entire Mediterranean region, extending eastwards into the Middle East and southward into tropical Africa.
Methods used by ancient Egyptian beekeepers were adopted throughout these regions, and honey is regarded as an important commodity by all Islamic countries. The Prophet Mohammed is quoted as saying:
"Honey is a remedy for every illness, and the Qur'an is a remedy for all illnesses of the mind. Therefore I recommend to you both remedies, the Qur'an and honey."
The basic hive shape was cylindrical with a hole in the front end for the bees to fly in and out. A detachable section at the back was used for harvesting the honeycombs, and these hives were stacked horizontally. Hives were made of baked mud, or perhaps of fired clay.
Ancient pictorial records show the beekeeper taking honey from the opened section at the back of the hive, while his assistant drives the bees to the front with puffs of smoke. A coloured wall-painting from Egypt's Middle Kingdom depicts this beautifully. The painting decorates the tomb of Rekhmire at Luxor and dates from about 1800 BC. From the Old Kingdom period, a carving from the sun temple of Pharaoh Ne-user-re, located near Djoser's pyramid and now on display in Berlin's Egyptian Museum, also depicts beekeeping activities. The relief dates from about 2500 BC.
The size of these ancient hives is difficult to estimate, but clay hives excavated in Greece dating from 400BC to AD600 have provided extra information. Ancient Roman writers provided further evidence as to size; the usual dimensions seem to have been about 90cm long and about 30cm across. Traditional hives of about this size are still in use throughout the Mediterranean region.
Indeed, the passage of time has seen very few changes in these ancient beekeeping methods. This is probably because these methods were handed down from father to son and, while the bees and their sources of food did not change, neither did the methods of keeping them. Thus, in many parts of the world, including Egypt, traditional beekeeping is practiced by using the same methods and the same style of hives as they were used thousands of years ago.
