Modern Egyptians

Population: 70,000,000 (2000) Majority ethnic group  : The majority of Egyptians are of Eastern Hamitic origin (shown here). Minority ethnic groups: Arab Egyptians (ruling class), Nubians (160,000), Arab Bedouin (150,000), Berber (6,000).

"And the Genius proceeded to enumerate and point out the objects to me: those piles of ruins, said he, which you see in that narrow valley watered by the Nile, are the remains of opulent cities, the pride of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. Behold the wrecks of her metropolis, of Thebes with her hundred palaces, the parent of cities, and monument of the caprice of destiny.  There a people, now forgotten, discovered, while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences.  A race of men now rejected from society for their black skin and wooly hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe.  Lower down, those dusky points are the pyramids whose masses have astonished you." Count C.F.C. de Volney, Ruins of Empire, 1789, chapter iv

Egyptian Kom Ombo, Upper Egypt photo: Bill Hocker

Egyptians tilling the soil

Egyptian riding donkey

Egyptian, Upper Egypt

Egyptians, Upper Egypt

Egyptian driver, Luxor

Coptic man

Egyptian guides, Great Pyramid

Young Egyptian, Mostafa

Egyptian musician, Upper Egypt

to Descendents of Ham

to White Folks' Egyptian Madness