The country is a gift of the Nile. Kemet - the name of Egypt in Old Egyptian - stands for black land, the fertile farmland left behind by the Nile flood that brings along the black mud. Der Gegensatz zu kemet war ta descheret – the red land - describing the red and yellow endlessness of the dessert protecting the Western and the Eastern flanks from foreign conquerors. The catatracts of the Nile protected the Egyptians from the South and the Mediterranean the North. These were the optimal prerequisites for the Egyptian civilization to further advance and become the superpower of the Bronze Age and last for almost 3000 years. These conditions also gave us unfathomable monuments like the pyramids and objets d'art of gold, silver and precious stones like the death mask of Tutankhamun as well as stories that rather resemble fairytales.

Greek historian Herodot called Egypt the gift of the Nile some 2400 years ago and the same can be said about it today, like mentioned before. Of course, the annual floods have been reigned in by the Nasser Dam in Assuan and the Sinai and Red Sea coast became dotted with tourist resorts, but almost everything in Egypt still happens within a corridor of 2 miles East and West of the river, except the Fayum Oasis.

Since the dawn of civilication, Egypt is divided between two realms: Upper Egypt in the South and Lower Egypt in the North, with Memphis in the delta being the captial of Lower Egypt for the most part and Thebes, religious capital and captial of Upper Egypt. Memphis is about 20 kilometers south of Cairo, whereas Luxor can be considered as the modern continuation of Thebes. But 3000 years of – almost – continuous reign of the Pharaos turned the country in the open-air museum it is today, from Abu Simbel to Alexandria with hundreds of important sites on both banks of the Nile.