Omar Sharif a foreigner of some sort. He bridled at travel restrictions imposed by the government of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, leading to self-exile in Europe. He was a lifelong horse racing enthusiast, and at one time ranked among the world's top contract bridge players. Omar Sharif, whose adopted surname means "noble" or "nobleman", was born as Michel Dimitri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Melkite Catholic family, either of Syrian or Lebanese descent: he belonged to a small ethnocultural minority known as the Levantine 'Antiochian' Greek Catholics of Egypt ("Rum Katuleek"), an offshoot of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.
Egyptian blue Egyptian blue Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (CaCuSiO or CaOCuO(SiO) (calcium copper tetrasilicate)) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment. It was known to the Romans by the name "caeruleum" – see also the English word cerulean. After the Roman era, Egyptian blue fell from use and the manner of its creation was forgotten. The ancient Egyptian word wꜣḏ signifies blue, blue-green, and green. The first recorded use of "Egyptian blue" as a color name in English was in 1809. Egyptian blue