The semi-presidential republic of Egypt, located in northeastern Africa with its capital Cairo, covers 1,001,449 km². It borders Sudan to the south, Libya to the west, and Gaza and Israel to the northeast. The northern border is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. The island of Cyprus is 380 km from the coast. To the southeast, Egypt has an extensive coastline along the Red Sea with the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba or Eilat. Across the Gulf of Eilat are Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with ferry connections available.
History
Viticulture is thousands of years old, although this area is not counted among the cradles of winemaking like Mesopotamia. According to a hypothesis, Greek colonists introduced viticulture in the Al-Fayoum oasis south of Cairo during the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). An early Egyptian wine culture is evidenced by numerous paintings in tomb chambers featuring wine motifs. Finds date back to 2500 BC. In the image, the tomb of Chaemwese in Thebes around 1450 BC depicts various steps of wine production, such as harvesting and fermentation in containers, as well as loading a ship with amphorae:
