The Suez Canal Opened in 1869

The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BCE, while Cleopatra lived about 2,000 years before 1969.

Howard Carter discovered the nearly intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Found in 1799, it carried the same text in three scripts, and Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.

Most of the country is desert, so the population clusters along the river and its delta.