EGYPT

Official Name: Arab Republic of EgyptForm of Government: RepublicCapital: Cairo Population: 80 million(appox)Official Language: ArabicMoney: Egyptian pound, GuineyArea: 3,86,662 sq mi (1,001,449 sq km)Major Mountain Ranges: Eastern HighlandsMajor River: Nile

Without the Nile River, all of Egypt would be desert. Only about an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain falls throughout Egypt each year.

Floods cover the river's valleys, leaving sediments needed for trees, plants, and crops to grow.

Egypt is often divided into two sections: Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north. The sections are named this way because the Nile flows from south to north. The river empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

Southern Egypt's landscape contains low mountains and desert. Northern Egypt has wide valleys near the Nile and desert to the east and west.

North of Cairo, the capital, is the sprawling, triangular Nile River Delta. This fertile land is completely covered with farms.

NILE RIVER DELTA

About 90 percent of Egyptians are Muslim, which means they are followers of the Islam religion. Islam dominates Egyptian society.

About 10 percent of Egyptians are Copts, one of the oldest branches of the Christian religion.

Egypt's population is growing rapidly. This puts strains on Egypt's resources, since most people live in a narrow strip of land along the Nile River

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

PHYSICAL SIZE AND BORDERS

The country's greatest distance from north to south is 1,024 kilometers, and from east to west, 1,240 kilometers.

Egypt's natural boundaries consist of more than 2,900 kilometers of coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Suez, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Red Sea.

Egypt shares its longest boundary, which extends 1,273 kilometers, with Sudan.

Egypt is predominantly desert. Only 35,000 square kilometers- -3.5 percent of the total land area--are cultivated and permanently settled.

Egypt's geological history has produced four major physical regions:

a) Nile Valley and Delta

b) Western Desert (also known as the Libyan Desert)

c) the Eastern Desert (also known as the Arabian Desert)

d) the Sinai Peninsula.

The Nile Valley and Delta is the most important region because it supports 99 percent of the population on the country's only cultivable land.

PHYSIOGRPHIC UNITS

NILE VALLEY DELTA The Nile Valley and Delta, the most extensive oasis on earth (a fertile spot in the desert where water is found) was created by the world's second-longest river ,i.e River Nile

Without the topographic channel that permits the Nile to flow across the Sahara, Egypt would be entirely desert; the Nile River traverses about 1,600 kilometers through Egypt and flows northward from the Egyptian-Sudanese border to the Mediterranean Sea.

At Cairo the Nile spreads out over what was once a broad estuary that has been filled by silt deposits to form a fertile, fan-shaped delta about 250 kilometers wide at the seaward base.

The Nile Delta extends over approximately 22,000 square kilometers.

WESTERN DESERT The Western Desert covers about 700,000 square kilometers and accounts for about two-thirds of Egypt's land area.

This immense desert to the west of the Nile spans the area from the Mediterranean Sea south to the Sudanese border.

Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources, and permanent settlements are found all of which have fresh water provided by the Nile or by local groundwater.

The Siwah Oasis,(A fertile spot in a desert where water is found) is close to the Libyan border is isolated from the rest of Egypt but has sustained life since ancient times.

The Siwah Oasis, close to the Libyan border is isolated from the rest of Egypt but has sustained life since ancient times.

The other major oases form a topographic chain of basins extending from the Al Fayyum Oasis which lies sixty kilometers southwest of Cairo, south to the Bahriyah, Farafirah, and Dakhilah oases before reaching the country's largest oasis, Kharijah.

Fayyum Oasis have permitted extensive cultivation in an irrigated area that extends over 1,800 square kilometers.

EASTERN DESERTThe topographic features of the region east of the Nile are very different from those of the Western Desert.

The relatively mountainous Eastern Desert rises abruptly from the Nile and extends over an area of approximately 220,000 square kilometers

This elevated region has a natural drainage pattern that rarely functions because of insufficient rainfall.

The Eastern Desert is generally isolated from the rest of the country. There is no oasis cultivation in the region because of the difficulty in sustaining any form of agriculture.

Except for a few villages on the Red Sea coast, there are no permanent settlements.

SINAI PENINSULAThis triangular area covers about 61,100 square kilometers .

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 the country's highest point--2,642 meters. The Red Sea is 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 meters.

CLIMATE

Egypt has a hot arid desert climate .It is hot or warm during the day, and cool at night.

In desert regions the temperature varies greatly, especially in summer; it may range from 7 °C at night, to 40 °C during the day.

Sometime between March and May, a hot and dry sand storm, known as Khamsin winds, blow from the south east up to the north.

Egypt receives less than 80 mm (3.15 in) of precipitation annually in most areas, although in the coastal areas it reaches 200 mm. It hardly ever rains during the summer.