Daylight Saving Time in Egypt: History Since 1940

Egypt first moved its clocks one hour forward for the summer in 1940, during the Second World War.^[1] Many websites say that Egypt first adopted daylight saving time in 1988,^[2][3] but 1988 was a return, not a start: by then Egypt had used summer time during the war, in every summer from 1957 to 1975, and again from 1982 to 1984.^[4][5][6][7] Since 1957, laws have brought summer time back five times and stopped it five times. This history follows those laws, as they were printed in Egypt's Official Gazette.

Timeline

• 1940–1945: summer time during the Second World War.^[1]
• 1946–1956: no summer time is known.^[1][8]
• 1957–1975: every summer, from 1 May to the end of September.^[4]
• 1976–1981: none. The 1957 law was cancelled from 1 September 1975.^[5]
• 1982–1984: from 1 May to the end of September, except during Ramadan.^[6]
• 1985–1987: none. The 1982 law was cancelled from 1 May 1985.^[7]
• 1988–2010: from 1 May (from 1995: the last Friday of April) to the end of September, except during Ramadan.^[9][10]
• 2011–2013: none.^[11]
• 2014: from 16 May to the last Thursday of September, with a pause for Ramadan.^[12]
• 2015–2022: none. Paused in 2015, then cancelled in 2016, three days before it was due to start.^[13][14][15]
• From 2023: from the last Friday of April to the last Thursday of October.^[16]

1940–1945: the war years

Summer time came to Egypt with the Second World War. It was introduced in 1940 under the British, whose forces were based in Egypt, and the clocks were moved forward each summer until 1945.^[1] The exact dates of those summers come from later time zone lists.^[8]

In October 1945, King Farouk issued a decree-law "establishing a summer hour", signed by Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmy El-Nokrashy. It let the cabinet set the start and the end of summer time each year.^[17] No use of it is known for the next eleven years: summer time came back only in 1957.^[1][8]

1957–1975: Nasser's summer hour

On 7 May 1957, President Gamal Abdel Nasser issued Law No. 108 of 1957, again "establishing a summer hour". From 10 May 1957, Egypt's legal time was one hour ahead from 1 May to the end of September of every year.^[4] The rule stayed the same for 19 summers.

On 24 August 1975, President Anwar Sadat issued Law No. 87 of 1975. Its main article is one line long: the 1957 law is cancelled. It took effect on 1 September 1975.^[5] From 1976 to 1981, Egypt kept the same time all year.^[18]

1982–1985: not in Ramadan

In 1982, President Hosni Mubarak's government brought summer time back to save energy.^[18] Law No. 51 of 1982 put the clocks one hour ahead from 1 May to the end of September each year, with one exception: the holy month of Ramadan. It came into force on Sunday 25 July 1982.^[6]

Three years later, Law No. 4 of 1985 cancelled it from 1 May 1985, the very day that year's summer time would have begun.^[7] Egypt kept the same time all year in 1985, 1986 and 1987.^[18]

1988: a return, not a start

On 9 May 1988, President Mubarak issued Law No. 141 of 1988. Its rules were those of 1982: summer time from 1 May to the end of September, except in Ramadan. It came into force on 13 May 1988.^[9] It was the third time in 31 years that a law brought summer time back.

In 1995, Law No. 14 moved the dates: from the last Friday of April to the end of the last Thursday of September.^[10] The Ramadan rule stayed. When Ramadan began to fall in late summer, summer time ended just before it from 2006 to 2009, and in 2010 it was paused for the month and then used again until the end of September.^[1][8]

The 1988 law was in force for 23 years, so it was the law quoted whenever summer time was in the news. When summer time was cancelled in 2011, and again when it returned in 2014, news reports called 1988 the year Egypt first adopted it,^[2][3] and many websites have repeated it since.

2011–2023: stopped, back, stopped, back

In April 2011, days before that year's summer time was due to begin, Egypt's transitional government decided to cancel it.^[2] Decree-law No. 41 of 2011, issued on 26 April 2011 by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, cancelled the laws of 1988 and 1995.^[11]

Summer time returned on 16 May 2014, during an energy crisis,^[18] by Decree-law No. 35 of 2014 of the interim President Adly Mansour: from the last Friday of April to the end of the last Thursday of September, again except in Ramadan.^[12] In April 2015, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi suspended it until 25 September 2015, so there was none that year.^[13] In 2016 the government planned to bring it back on 7 July, after Ramadan, but cancelled it on 4 July, three days before.^[14] Law No. 62 of 2016 then cancelled the 2014 rules.^[15]

After eight summers without it, Law No. 24 of 2023 brought summer time back, from the last Friday of April to the end of the last Thursday of October each year.^[16] Egypt has one time zone, so the rule is the same in Cairo, Alexandria and the rest of the country.^[8] In 2026, for example, summer time runs from Friday 24 April to the end of Thursday 29 October.

Phones and computers

Phones and computers know past clock changes from the tz database, a public list of the world's time zones. For Egypt it shows summer time in every year from 1957 to 2010, including 1976–1981 and 1985–1987, when Egypt had none by law.^[5][7][8] The database's own notes say that its data for the years before 1990 come from an atlas that "contains many errors and cites no sources".^[8] Times worked out for those years in Egypt can therefore be one hour off.