Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.
Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the east and to the west. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since antiquity.
The daily language of the Egyptians is the local variety of Arabic, known as Egyptian Arabic or Masri. Egyptians are predominantly adherents of Sunni Islam with a Shia minority and a significant proportion who follow native Sufi orders. A sizable minority of Egyptians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose liturgical language, Coptic, is the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. The national identity of Egyptians as it developed in the 19th to 20th centuries consists of overlapping or conflicting ideologies, secular Egyptian nationalism (also known as “Pharaonism”), secular Arab nationalism (including pan-Arabism), and Islamism.
