This Day: It is said Egypt is the cradle of civilization, the saying, which has become a clichأƒآ©, does not capture the enviable history and beauty of Egypt. Neither does it bring to the fore the genius of the ancestral Egypt that has been exhumed to enthrall and excite the modern world. Looking at its history, its artifacts and its geography, Egypt can be compared to an elephant that is being examined by blind men who shudder at the expansive parts of the animal, as they see it with their hands.

The people of old Egypt bequeathed invaluable heirloom and enduring legacy to new Egypt, and to the world. Their creativity is immeasurable, their imagination so profound, that for thousands of years to come the artworks they left behind would continue to awe the world.

Every year, eight million people from all over the world visit Egypt as tourists. They go to witness and confirm what they have been reading about all these years. And whenever they visit they return to their various countries wiser and more educated. But many never cease to ask the question, How were the people of old Egypt able to build the pyramids, the tombs, the mummies, and how were they able to invent preservatives that kept those artworks to get to us?

Egypt is located in North Africa and shares boundary with Israel. It is a country of 76 million people, which records additional one million every year. The old Egypt that transmuted to modern Egypt has seven thousand years history.

The old and modern Egypt was built on the Nile, which runs across the country from the south to the north. To many Egyptians and the world at large, the Nile is the heartbeat of Egypt. Christians who read their Bible know that one of the ten plagues God meted to the Egyptians when He wanted their King to allow Israelites to go was to turn River Nile into blood.

The Nile gave existence to Egypt and it was from the valleys of the Nile that Egypt started its world famous civilization. Mr. Saber Anter, Counselor, press and information of the Egypt embassy explained to THISDAY that the Nile was controlled and distributed by government in order to judiciously allocate the water from the Nile to farmers who depended on it for irrigation, both in the old times and now. The Nile interrupted the barren desert that was more that 70 per cent of Egypt's land space and which lies in the eastern and western sides of the Nile. The farmers who solely depend on the Nile cultivate their crops along the Nile valleys from the north to the south.

Millions of tourists from Asia, especially from India come to visit the Nile every year.

Mr. Anter said, "Without the Nile, there will be no Egypt. It is the base of Egyptian civilization. They built the cities and the plantations on the Nile. Government from the olden time organized, controlled and distributed its water."

Anter also said that the growth of the State of Egypt also depended on the Nile, so government would not have allowed the river, which was the heartbeat of the nation to be managed arbitrarily by the people. Civilization grew at the two ends of the river. It was from the northern end that Cairo sprouted and became a very important city, while Aswan grew from the southern side of the Nile.

There was also civilization in the deserts. When the Macedonian, Alexander the Great came to Egypt he founded Alexandria, which had the largest library in the world then, but it was gutted by fire to the chagrin of the intellectual world. The library has been rebuilt and is considered one of the biggest in the world.

"Alexandria was built by Alexander the Great. His tomb is still there. After his expedition in India he came back to Alexandria and died. This was during Greek civilization. It was from Alexandria that the Romans came to Egypt."

Cairo was described by an English man, William Lithgow in 1614 as "This little world, the great Cairo the most admirable and the greatest city seen upon earth the Microcosmus of the greater world."

Another Englishman, Henry Adams, also described the Nile thus, "The Nile does not change. Indeed, I know of no place where everything changes as much as it does here, and nothing is ever changed You feel quite at home."

Mesmerized by what they saw, these Englishmen became romantic in the way they described this ancient city, which is said to have been founded on the site of Babylon, near the ruins of ancient Memphis. It is arguably the largest city in Africa for centuries.

According to Egypt tourism authorities, modern Cairo encompasses many former cities and their monuments: The pyramids of the Pharaohs, the Sphinx, early Christian monasteries and churches, Salah Al-din Citadel, and mosques of the Mamluke and Ottoman sultans. "Five thousand years of culture are concentrated here, at the centre of three continents."

The most awesome artworks and structures include the Giza Pyramids, which are located on the west bank of the Nile facing Cairo and on the top of Giza plateau rise the three Pyramids which are one of the seven wonders of the world, surrounded by small Pyramids and hundreds of Mastabas and tombs for the kings and nobles.

"The Ancient Egyptians, it must be noted, built the pyramids to be tombs to preserve the bodies of their dead kings." They believed that those who were dead would come back to life.

Egypt has a long history of interaction and integration with people of other parts of the world. At the beginning, the Greeks invaded Egypt, when they left the Romans came. But these were conquerors that came and departed etching their culture and tradition in physical structures, some of them still exist today to attract tourists. But it was the Arabs that came and imposed their language, tradition and religion on the people. Christianity was brought to Egypt by the Romans but it lacked deep root, that when the Arabs came they swept it off in one torrent. Today, Egypt is a Muslim country with nine per cent of the population as Christians.

Mr. Anter explained, "The Arabs came from the east; the same with the Persians. The French and the English came from the North. The Greek and the Romans stayed for a long time. The Romans cultivated wheat in the desert, which became famous for wheat plantation."

The Pharaohic civilization started before the invasions and lasted for more than five thousand years and was advanced in the art of building and construction. They also developed the study of chemistry through which they developed substances which they used to preserve and maintain the dead bodies of their kings for more than seven thousand years. The process of preserving these bodies is known as mummification, after which they were kept in pyramids. Because they believed in another life, the whole culture was enmeshed in religious essence and everything needed by the body when it comes back in another life was provided for.

While eight million tourists visit Egypt every year, the Egyptian government made provisions for 12 million people. It hopes that in a few years' time it will meet the target of having 12 million tourists visit the country every year.

"Tourism is a major source of foreign exchange for Egypt. We also have the Suez Canal as a huge revenue earner, and Egyptians who live abroad send money home. But tourism provides huge resources for Egypt. But we are also promoting industrial and agricultural export," Anter said.

What about the menace of terrorism, which hampers security in the Middle East? Mr. Anter admitted that it was really a problem, especially in the 90s, when it presented a threat to the stability and peace of the country, but said that government is combating the problem, adding that the menace had significantly abated since 2000.

"We managed to deal with it. While it is difficult to get rid of terrorism because the country is wide with a lot of borders the country is controlling it. Since 2000 till now our country has been able to manage and control this threat. One or two attacks could happen at Mount Sinai. We use the police, the media and religion to scare them away. Men of religion have a role to play. They have to criticize those people that use the name of religion to attack people and unleash mayhem. The political reform in our country gave opportunity to everybody to participate in politics and this has encouraged economic development and unemployment has decreased, which is the principal reason for terrorism to flourish," Mr. Saber explained.

What are the cultural and social make up of Egypt and how did it develop so rapidly? When the French came to Egypt they introduced the stimulus that made Egypt to develop. From 1798 to 1801 there was French expedition led by the famous Napoleon Bonaparte. When the French left, precisely in 1805 Muhammed Ali came and transformed Egypt to a modern state. He was the one that laid the foundation for a modern Egypt. He left in 1840 and in 1882 the British came and in 1920 they proclaimed Egypt an independent state and the constitution was established. This was the situation when Gamal Abdul Nasir came in 1952 and brought a revolution that gave a new focus to the country of the Pharaohs.

Abdul Nasir handed over power to Anwar Sadat, who is known for making peace with Israel and incurring the wrath of the hardliners. He was assassinated and succeeded by the nation's current president, Muhammed Hosni Mubarak, who is believed to have built the contemporary Egypt.

There is so much to see in Egypt. And that is why tourists from all over the world defy terrorism threats to come and see the wonders of human creativity, inspired by natural conditions, which formed the impetus for the explosion of human ingenuity. The Nile was the crust of Egypt's growth and development.

But Egypt also has the Red Sea coast described by the English novelist, E. M. Forster as, " that exquisite corridor of tinted mountain and radiant water." The Red Sea coast runs from the Gulf of Suez to the Sudanese border for 1080 km. It is one of nature's endowments that continues to attract tourists to the country.

Also there is the Mount Sinai, known as land of discovery; the route to the Promised Land; "Where Isis sought Osiris (Egyptian gods) and the Pharaohs found gold."

The Sinai is a meeting point for three great religions-Christianity, Judaism and Islam; where Moses witnessed the Burning Bush, the Holy Family (Christ) passed along during their flight into Egypt and where Amr Ibn El Aas went along on his Islamic invasion of Egypt. One will not forget the great Egyptian Oasis, described by the English Romantic Poet, Lord Gordon Byron as deserts dwelling place and by Egypt tourism authorities as unspoilt refuges from the modern world, pockets of civilization in the dramatic setting of the desert.

Egypt will continue to beckon at tourists. It has so much in its environment that are irresistible to the curiosity of the people of the world - from all the continents of the world- there are things of wonder to see in Egypt.