geography of egypt Summary and Overview

GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT The country has three great natural divisions: (1) the Delta; (2) the Nile valley; (3) the sandy and rocky wastes. The Delta is one vast triangular plain, watered by the branches of the Nile and numerous canals, and covered with remains of ancient cities and villages and groves of palm trees, which stand on mounds of great antiquity. The Delta extends along the Mediterranean for about 200 miles and up the Nile for 100 miles. The Tanitic branch of the Nile is on the east of the Delta, and the Canopic branch on the west, though the Delta is now limited chiefly to the space between the Rosetta and the Damietta branches, which is about 90 miles in extent. The valley of the Nile extends to the lower or First Cataract, near the island of Philae, which is about 500 miles south of Cairo. It is in a rich state of cultivation, but is very narrow, and hemmed in by low mountains or rocky table-land, rarely rising into peaks, though often approaching the river in bold promontories. Behind the rocky range, which varies from 300 to 1000 feet in height, on either side of the Nile, are deserts rocky and strewn with sand. The valley is scarcely more than 10 miles wide, and there is little fruitful land beyond its limits, or such portions as are reached by its fertilizing waters on the rise and overflow of the river. See Nile.