Famous people who grew up or lived in Egypt

Akhenaten1353 BC–1336 BC

📍 Amarna, Minya Governorate, Egypt

I built Amarna from nothing — a new city on virgin ground in Middle Egypt, dedicated entirely to the Aten, the disc of the sun, whom I proclaimed the one true god. No other pharaoh had done…

Anwar Sadat1918–1981

📍 Mit Abu al-Kum, Monufia, Egypt

I was born Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat on the 25th of December 1918 in Mit Abu al-Kum, a village in the Nile Delta. I was imprisoned twice by the British during the Second World War for…

Cleopatra VII

📍 Royal Palace Quarter (Brucheion), Alexandria, Egypt

I was born Kleopatra Philopator around 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, into the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt since Alexander the Great's death three centuries before. The royal palace…

Gamal Abdel Nasser1918

📍 18 Qanawat Street, Bacchus district, Alexandria, Egypt

I was born Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein on the 15th of January 1918 in Beni Mor, a village in the Asyut province of Upper Egypt, the son of a postal worker. I grew up in Alexandria and Cairo…

Mohamed Salah1992–2012

📍 Nagrig, Basyoun, Gharbia, Egypt

Mohamed Salah was born in June 1992 in Nagrig, a farming village in the Nile Delta near the town of Basyoun, in Gharbia province, about 120 kilometres north-west of Cairo. He grew up in a…

Nefertiti1346 BC–1332 BC

📍 North Palace, Amarna (Akhetaten), Minya Governorate, Egypt

I was Great Royal Wife to the pharaoh Akhenaten, and together we led one of the boldest changes Egypt had ever known. My husband turned the kingdom's worship towards a single god, the Aten…

Ramesses II

📍 Pi-Ramesses, Qantir, Egypt

I built Pi-Ramesses from nothing, raising it on the eastern edge of the Delta as the greatest city Egypt had ever seen. Four great temples marked its quarters, dedicated to Amun, Ra, Ptah…

Saladin1138–1193

📍 Citadel of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

I made the Citadel of Cairo my seat of power after I became Sultan of Egypt and Syria, commanding a view of the entire Nile valley. It was a fortress, yes, but also a palace and a centre of…

Tutankhamun1341 BC–1332 BC

📍 Amarna (Akhetaten), Minya Governorate, Egypt

I was born Tutankhaten — living image of the Aten — most likely in Akhetaten, the new capital my father, Akhenaten, built in the empty desert on the east bank of the Nile, midway between…

Yasser Arafat1929–2004

📍 Heliopolis (Masr el-Gedida), Cairo, Egypt

I was born Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa on the 24th of August 1929 in Cairo — though I always said Jerusalem. I became the chairman of the Palestine Liberation…