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Geography |
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Almost 98% of the Egyptian population
lives on less than 4% of the land, which would be the narrow
strip of land that borders the banks of the Nile River. The rest of
the country is pretty
much desert, with the exception of some oases
here and there,
particularly in the western desert. Egypt lies
on
the northwestern corner of Africa.
It boasts a long coastline on both the Mediterranean Sea to the North,
and the Red Sea to the east. |
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The Nile flows to the North, from
the bowels of Africa, cutting into the Sudan, where Egypt borders the
Sudan, up until
it spills into the Mediterranean. North of
Cairo, the Nile is split into two main
branches: Damietta and Rosetta, creating the fertile Nile delta.
The Nile basically splits Egypt into two unequal
segments: the western desert which is the larger portion, and the
eastern. |
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| To the west of
Egypt, beyond the western desert,
lies Libya. Sinai, the triangular peninsula situated in the
top left hand corner of Egypt, is said to be in Asia. Sinai is bounded
on
the north by the
Mediterranean, on the west by the Gulf of Suez and on the
east by the
Gaza strip, Israel and the Gulf on Aqaba. It is
mainly desert
but has some of the most
beautiful underwater habitation. Apart from the mountains of Sinai, the land in
Egypt is relatively flat. |
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| Mt. Catherine
is the highest point of elevation,
measuring 2650 meters above sea level. The Qattara Depression is
the lowest, measuring 133 meters
below sea level.
Egypt occupies an area of 998,000 square kilometers, of which 96% is
pure desert.
With a few oases here and there, most of the
farmland of Egypt is limited to the Nile Valley and
Delta, which have rich fertile
soils. The vast majority of remaining
land is covered by infertile rocky or sandy soils that
are unsuitable for agriculture. |
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