Flag: Egypt Emoji

The flag of Egypt. Three equal horizontal bands of red, white, and black, with the golden Eagle of Saladin centered on the white stripe. The eagle holds a scroll in Kufic script reading 'جمهورية مصر العربية' ('Arab Republic of Egypt'). 2:3 ratio. The current design was adopted on October 4, 1984.

This is the archetypal pan-Arab tricolor. The red-white-black stripes were introduced after the July 23, 1952 Free Officers' revolution that overthrew King Farouk, and the same scheme was later adopted in variations by Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Sudan. The Eagle of Saladin, named for the twelfth-century Kurdish sultan who drove the Crusaders from Jerusalem in 1187, has been Egypt's state symbol since 1958. The eagle was found carved on the western wall of Saladin's citadel in Cairo and adopted by Gamal Abdel Nasser as a symbol of pan-Arab nationalism.

With 114 million people, Egypt has the largest population in the Arab world and in the Middle East, and one of the largest populations of any African country. The language, music, film industry, and Azhari religious tradition have shaped Arab culture globally for over a century. 🇪🇬 is the most-posted flag in the entire pan-Arab tricolor family, and one of the most-used flag emojis in Africa and the Middle East combined.

The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1EAU+1F1EA + U+1F1ECU+1F1EC. Added in Emoji 1.0 (2015). Platforms without flag support show the letters EGEG.

🇪🇬 is driven by a handful of very large waves: one of the world's biggest football fandoms, the Ramadan and Eid religious calendar, an Egyptian diaspora of roughly 10 million, and some of the oldest continuously-watched cultural exports in the Arab world.

Football drives the biggest domestic and diaspora spikes. Mo Salah at Liverpool is singlehandedly responsible for a huge share of global 🇪🇬 posting. Every Salah goal, every Liverpool match, every AFCON or World Cup qualifier brings 🇪🇬 onto global football Twitter. The rivalry between Cairo's Al-Ahly and Zamalek (the 'Cairo Derby') is one of the most heated in world football; match days drive millions of 🇪🇬 posts across Arab social.

Ramadan. Egypt is the Arab world's largest TV market and produces the most-watched Ramadan musalsal (TV drama) each year. The 30-day fasting month generates a sustained 🇪🇬 wave across MENA and diaspora feeds. Fawanees (Ramadan lanterns) are the visual signature of the season; the Cairo-made tin-and-glass style is exported across the region.

Religious and historical content. Egypt is the seat of Al-Azhar, one of the oldest continuously-running universities in the world and the most influential Sunni Islamic institution. Coptic Christmas (January 7) brings in the other historical thread: Egypt's Coptic Christian community, around 10% of the population, is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.

Pharaonic content. Pyramids, mummies, Tutankhamun, hieroglyphs. Egypt's ancient history is a global brand. Every new archaeological discovery (the Grand Egyptian Museum opening and its extended rollout since 2024 is the current wave) generates 🇪🇬 across global museum and tourism accounts.

Suez Canal. One of the world's chokepoints for global shipping. The 2021 Ever Given grounding drove the biggest single 🇪🇬 moment of the past decade. The 2023-onwards Red Sea shipping disruptions keep the canal in shipping-industry feeds.

Diaspora communities in the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait) are the largest, followed by France, Italy, the US, Canada, and the UK.

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  Capital: Cairo (30.04°N, 31.24°E)
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  Population: ~114.5 million (2025). Largest in Arab world.
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  Area: 1,010,408 km²
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  Currency: Egyptian pound (EGP, £)
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  Language: Arabic (Egyptian dialect), English widely taught
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  Calling code: +20
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  Time zone: EET (UTC+2), DST April-October (UTC+3)
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  Internet TLD: .eg

Foods that show up with 🇪🇬

Landmarks that anchor 🇪🇬 content

Egypt's flag history is the history of modern Arab nationalism, condensed into a single design.

Pre-1952 monarchy. The Kingdom of Egypt (1922-1953) flew a green flag with a white crescent and three white stars, representing Muslims, Christians, and Jews (or, in another reading, Egypt, Sudan, and Nubia). The green-and-white monarchical design remained after the 1922 independence from the UK and lasted until the revolution.

1952 Free Officers' revolution. On July 23, 1952, a group of army officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Naguib overthrew King Farouk. The new flag, called the 'Arab Liberation Flag', was flown alongside the old green flag for about six months and adopted officially in 1953. The design: three horizontal stripes (red, white, black) with two green stars on the white band, representing the proposed union of Egypt and Sudan.

1958 United Arab Republic. Egypt and Syria merged into a single country, the UAR, from 1958 to 1961 (Egypt alone continued using the name until 1971). The UAR flag kept the red-white-black tricolor and replaced the two green stars with a single arrangement of two stars representing the two countries. After Syria's 1961 withdrawal, Egypt continued with the UAR flag and branding.

1972 Federation of Arab Republics. Egypt, Syria, and Libya briefly proposed a political federation. The federation flag replaced the two green stars with a golden Hawk of Quraysh, a reference to the pre-Islamic Quraysh tribe and Prophet Muhammad's ancestry. The federation never became a functioning polity, but Egypt kept the hawk flag until 1984.

1984 current flag. On October 4, 1984, the golden hawk was replaced with the golden Eagle of Saladin. Saladin was a twelfth-century Kurdish sultan who founded the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt and drove the Crusader armies from Jerusalem in 1187. The eagle was found carved on Saladin's citadel in Cairo and had been used as Egypt's state symbol since 1958 alongside variations.

The color scheme has an additional symbolic reading that gets cited constantly: red for the blood of martyrs and the revolution, white for the bright future and the bloodless 1952 coup, black for the end of foreign domination (British, Ottoman). Whether or not this was the designers' original intent, it's the canonical explanation now.

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  Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (moving): 30 days of fasting plus three days of festival. Biggest sustained 🇪🇬 window. Fanous lanterns and musalsal TV dramas define the season. 2026: February 17 to March 22.
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  January 7: Coptic Christmas: Egypt's Coptic Christian community's most important holiday. Public holiday since 2002.
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  January 25: Revolution anniversary / Police Day: Public holiday with complicated dual meaning since 2011.
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  April 25: Sinai Liberation Day: Marks the 1982 Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Beach-town and military-family posting spike.
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  Sham el-Nessim (Coptic Easter Monday): Pharaonic-era spring festival. Fesikh fish, green onions, family picnics in every park. 2026: April 13.
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  July 23: Revolution Day: Commemorates the 1952 coup that brought the current flag design. Military parades in Cairo.
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  October 6: Armed Forces Day: Marks the 1973 crossing of the Suez Canal at the start of the October War. Biggest military-identity 🇪🇬 window.

• •Egypt has the largest population in the Arab world at approximately 114 million (2025), and the third-largest in Africa.
• •The Suez Canal carries roughly 12% of global trade and about 30% of global container traffic. Annual transit revenue is Egypt's third-largest source of foreign currency after tourism and remittances.
• •Egypt's Al-Azhar University was founded in 970 AD and is one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world.
• •The Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids is the largest archaeological museum in the world, housing over 100,000 artifacts including the full Tutankhamun collection.
• •Egyptian Arabic cinema dates to 1896, just months after the Lumière brothers' first screenings in Paris. Egyptian films dominated the Arab cinema market for over a century.
• •Coptic Christians, around 10% of Egypt's population, are one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Liturgy is still conducted in the Coptic language, the last direct descendant of pharaonic Egyptian.
• •Egypt's Mo Salah has scored more Premier League goals than any African player in history and twice won the Premier League Golden Boot.
• •The word 'mocha' refers to the Yemeni port, but the word coffee itself comes from the Arabic 'qahwa', which reached Europe through the Cairo-Istanbul-Venice trade route.