Geography of Egypt
27°00′N 30°00′E / 27.000°N 30.000°E The geography of Egypt relates to two regions: North Africa and West Asia.
The longest straight-line distance in Egypt from north to south is 1,420 km (880 mi), while that from east to west measures 1,275 km (792 mi). Egypt has more than 2,900 km (1,800 mi) of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, the
Governorates
Egypt is divided into 28 governorates, which include two city-governortes: Alexandria (Alexandria Governorate) and Cairo (Cairo Governorate). There are nine governorates of Lower Egypt in the Nile Delta region, ten of Upper Egypt along the Nile river south from Cairo to Aswan and five frontier governorates covering Sinai and the deserts that lie west and east of the Nile river.
Natural regions
Egypt is predominantly desert. 35,000 km2 – 3.5% – of the total land area is cultivated and permanently settled. Most of the country lies within the wide band of desert that stretches eastwards from Africa's Atlantic Coast across the continent and into southwest Asia.
Egypt's
- Nile Valley and Nile Delta
- Western Desert (from the Nile west to the Libyan border)
- Eastern Desert (extends from the Nile Valley all the way to the Red Sea coast)
- Sinai Peninsula
Despite covering only about 5% of the total area of Egypt; the
Nile Valley and Delta
The Nile Valley and Delta, the most extensive
The White Nile, which begins at Lake Victoria in Uganda, supplies about 28% of the Nile's Egyptian waters. In its course from Lake Victoria to Juba in South Sudan, the White Nile's channel drops more than 600 m. In its 1,600-km course from Juba to Khartoum, Sudan's capital, the river descends just 75 m. In South Sudan, the White Nile passes through the Sudd, a wide, flat plain covered with swamp vegetation and slows almost to the point of stagnation.
The Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia, provides on average some 58% of the Nile's Egyptian waters. This river has a steeper gradient and therefore flows more swiftly than the White Nile, which it joins at Khartoum. Unlike the White Nile, the Blue Nile carries a considerable amount of sediment. For several kilometers north of Khartoum, water closer to the eastern bank of the river, coming from the Blue Nile, is visibly muddy, while that closer to the western bank, and coming from the White Nile, is clearer.
The much shorter Atbarah River, which also originates in Ethiopia, joins the main Nile north of Khartoum between the fifth and sixth cataracts (areas of steep rapids) and provides about 14% of the Nile's waters in Egypt. During the low-water season, which runs from January to June, the Atbarah shrinks to a number of pools. But, in late summer, when torrential rains fall on the Ethiopian Highlands, the Atbarah provides 22% of the Nile's flow.
The Blue Nile has a similar pattern. It contributes 17% of the Nile's waters in the low-water season and 68% during the high-water season. In contrast, the White Nile provides only 10% of the Nile's waters during the high-water season but contributes more than 80% during the low-water period. Thus, before the
The Nile enters Egypt a few kilometers north of
created by the flow of the river over many centuries.Below Aswan, the cultivated floodplain strip widens to as much as twenty km. North of Isna (160 km north of Aswan), the plateau on both sides of the valley rises to as much as 550 m above sea level; at Qina (some 90 km north of Isna) the 300-m limestone cliffs force the Nile to change course towards the southwest for about 60 km before it turns northwest for about 160 km to Asyut. Northward from Asyut, the escarpments on both sides diminish, and the valley widens to a maximum of 22 km.
At Cairo, the Nile spreads out over what was once a broad estuary, subsequently filled by silt deposits to form what is now a fertile, fan-shaped delta some 250 km wide at its seaward extremity and extending about 160 km from north to south. The Nile Delta covers approximately 22,000 km2 (roughly equivalent in area to that of Massachusetts). According to historical accounts from the first century AD, seven branches of the Nile once ran through the delta. According to later accounts, the Nile had, by around the twelfth century, just six branches.
Since then, nature and man have closed all but two main outlets: the east branch,
The fertility and productivity of the land adjacent to the Nile depend largely on the
The construction of
Researchers have estimated that beneficial silt deposits in the valley began about 10,000 years ago. The average annual deposit of arable soil through the course of the river valley amounted to some nine metres. Analysis of the flow revealed that 10.7 million tons of solid matter passed Cairo each year.
Today the Aswan High Dam obstructs most of this sediment, now retained in Lake Nasser. The reduction in annual silt deposits has contributed to rising water tables and increasing soil salinity in the Delta, the erosion of the river's banks in Upper Egypt, and the erosion of the alluvial fan along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Western Desert
The Western Desert covers an area of some 700,000 km2, thereby accounting for around two-thirds of Egypt's total land area. This immense desert to the west of the Nile spans the area from the Mediterranean Sea southwards to the Sudanese border. The desert's
The government has considered the Western Desert a frontier region and has divided it into two governorates at about the twenty-eighth parallel:
Limited
The other major
Eastern Desert
The topographic features of the desert region east of the Nile differ from those to the west of the Nile. The Eastern Desert is relatively mountainous. The elevation rises abruptly from the Nile, and a downward-sloping plateau of sand gives way within 100 km to arid, defoliated, rocky hills running north and south between the Sudan border and the Delta. The hills reach elevations of more than 1,900 m.
The region's most prominent feature is the easterly chain of rugged mountains, the
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula is a triangular-shaped peninsula, about 61,100 km2 in area slightly smaller than Latvia (64 573 km2). Similar to the desert, the peninsula contains mountains in its southern sector that are a geological extension of the Red Sea Hills, the low range along the Red Sea coast that includes Mount Catherine (Jabal Katrinah), the country's highest point, at 2,642 m above sea-level. The Red Sea may have been named after these mountains, which are red.
The southern side of the peninsula has a sharp escarpment that subsides after a narrow coastal shelf that slopes into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. The elevation of Sinai's southern rim is about 1,000 m. Moving northward, the elevation of this limestone plateau decreases. The northern third of Sinai is a flat, sandy coastal plain, which extends from the Suez Canal into the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Before the Israeli military occupied Sinai during the June 1967 War (Arab-Israeli war, also known as the Six-Day War), a single Egyptian governorate administered the whole peninsula. By 1982 after all of Sinai was returned to Egypt, the central government divided the peninsula into two governorates. North Sinai has its capital at Al Arish and the South Sinai has its capital in El Tor.
The abundance of life in the Sinai Peninsula may not be immediately apparent. This again has its roots in the way in which the animals of the desert have adapted to life here. Many species, mammals especially, but also reptiles and even birds such as owls, are nocturnal. They spend the daylight hours in the relative cool of burrows, under boulders or in crevices and cracks in the rock. Many of these creatures will only be apparent from their tracks and trails or from a fleeting glimpse of a diminutive gerbil, or zig-zigging hare, in the car headlights at night. Even those animals that do brave the heat of the day are normally only active in the early morning or evening.
Urban and rural areas
In the 1971 census, 57 percent of Egypt's population was counted as rural, including those residing in agricultural areas in the Nile Valley and Delta, as well as the much smaller number of persons living in desert areas. Rural areas differ from the urban in terms of poverty, fertility rates, and other social factors. Agriculture is a key component of the economy in rural areas, though some people are employed in the tourist industry or other non-farm occupations. In 1992, the percentage of Egypt's population employed in agriculture was 33 percent. The agricultural industry is dependent on irrigation from the Nile river.[2]
Extreme points
This is a list of the extreme points of Egypt, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.
- Northernmost point – unnamed headland immediately north-west of Matruh Governorate
- Easternmost point – Ras Hadarba (Cape Elba), Red Sea Governorate*
- Southernmost point – Jabal Bartazuga on the Sudanese border, Red Sea Governorate **
- Westernmost point – unnamed point on the border with Matruh Governorate
- * Ras Hadarba lies within the Hala'ib triangle which is claimed by Sudan but occupied by Egypt. If it is excluded, then Egypt's easternmost point is the Ras Banas peninsula on the mainland or, including islands, Mukawwa Island
- ** Egypt's southernmost point lies in the Bir Tawil region, an area that is commonly included as part of Egypt but is not claimed by it. If this area is excluded then Egypt has no southernmost point, its southern border being formed by the 22nd parallel north.
Notes
References
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Egypt: A Country Study. Federal Research Division.
- This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.