Geography and nature

Borders and position:
Egypt lies in the northeastern corner of Africa. It has an area of 1,000,000 square km. That's twice as big as France and slightly larger than Turkey.  Part of Egypt, the Sinai penensula, is part of Asia. Egypt has an almost rectangular shape. It is bordered to the east by the Red Sea in a coast over 1000 km in length. To the North lies the Mediterranean Sea, the coastline there is a bit less than 900km long. South of Egypt is Sudan, there the border is almost a perfect straight line delineated by the 22nd parallal. A triangular patch of land to the extreme southeast is a disputed territory between Sudan and Egypt. Sudan claims this land on ethnic grounds but Egypt maintains that a latitude border is a latitude border is a latitude border. West of Egypt lies Lybia and again the border is almost straight but not entirely so. To the northeast lies Israel and Palestine.

Nature and geography:
Egypt consists of several distinct geographic regions with distinct features and ecosystems:
 


Nile valley: Around the river Nile lies Egypt main centres of population and most of it's agricultural land. The fertile valley formed by the river flooding over the centuries forms a good ground for intensive cultivation. And that's what most of this area is: hardcore farmlands. The Nile valley (also known as upper and middle Egypt) is very narrow. On the east bank there is a pathetically narrow area of floodplain before one hits the limestone mountains of the eastern desert. On the west bank the floodplain is much wider and more fertile, it ends only when the sandstone hills of the western desert begin. This is probably where the ancient Egyptian ban on building houses on the west bank came from, why waste good farmland when the desert is wide and large. The farms of upper Egypt are mostly cultivated with sugar cane and the transport of this crop and the industries built around it are major components of life in these areas. On the southern edge of upper Egypt lies Nubia where the river narrows and becomes more rapid. Here is where cataracts (unnavigable rapid rocky stretches) can be found and where farms become more scarce. Further south is lake Nasser, a huge man made lake formed by the high dam at Aswan. The coast of the lake is high and rugged but there are patches of irrigated farmland and some fisheries. On the Northern edge of middle Egypt is the oasis of Fayium, a green depression in the middle of the desert irrigated by a small stream, at it's centre is lake Charon.
 


Nile Delta: This large, triangular area carved by the river and the sea forms the heartland of modern Egypt. Here is where up to 70% of the population lives. The delta is much wider than the valley and agriculture is more important here. Wheat, cotton, citrus, and corn are very popular crops in these regions. On the western borders of the delta the danger of desertification is a very physical and ever present threat, although the trend is for desert reclamation and an expansion of green areas the pace is tempered by the creeping sand dunes of the western desert. The eastern outskirts are also more sparce than the middle and are irrigated by minor streams which flow to the east and then feed the areas around the Suez canal. The Suez canal, though, is dominated by orchards and parks with some grassland and desert steppe. Around the canal itself there are salt marchs and shallow lakes.


Eastern desert, the Red sea, and Sinai: The Eastern desert is an area of limestone mountains of moderate height. These mountains rise sharply from the valley in the west and drop sharply into a very narrow coast to the east. The red sea coast consists of haematite which looks peculiarly brown and maybe one of the reasons the sea got its name. The mountains and the coast are home to a magnificent array of endangered species, both mammals and birds, while the sea itself has some of the world's most astounding coral reefs that are home to some very interesting, very fragile, and very endangered species. The southeastern corner (Halayeb and Shelateen) has unique thorn jungles whose tropical nature is quite unusual for such a latitude. Sinai is a penensula of almost perfect rectangular shape. Western Sinai is part of the Suez canal region and shares it's salt march/fruit orchard mix. Northern Sinai alternates between sand dunes on the coast and flat, fruit tree covered plains further inside. Cultivation here is a mix of spring water/rain water/and stream water cultivation. The middle of the penensula is a limestone plateau criss-crossed by dry river beds and seasonal streams, further south are the Sinai mountains rising sharply and ending in Egpyt's highest point: St. Catherine at 2600m+. The coast of south Sinai is narrow and very similar to that of the red sea. The natural treasures of South Sinai are as great if not more so than those of the red sea. Large portions of south Sinai are natural protectorates but still the tourist industry is having a horrible effect on the fragile coral reefs.

Western desert: The western desert is a huge nearly flat sandstone plateau. It has several interesting features though. The far southwest has a very high massif ending in a major mountain called Uweinat. This area is very rough but artesian wells have allowed for immense reclamation efforts in this seemingle forsaken region. The westernmost parts of the western desert are covered in a large desert area, large areas of sand dunes, featureless and extensive. This area is called the great sand sea. Several other smaller areas of sand dunes also exist further east, these are called ghorood, and amazingly these dunes seems to move with the wind! This is not very good news for people in the oases of the western desert since these dunes can quickly swallow areas that have been reclaimed with a lot of effort before moving on to snuff more life out of some more lands. The Southern parts of the western desert are dominated by large, rich basins that form a series of major oasis in the middle of the desert. Maybe oasis is a bit misleading here because these are not narrow green patches around springs, they are large irrigated farmlands and pastures irrigated by subterranean water. This area is what is known as the new valley. Egypt has ambitious (and some say unrealistic) plans of extending branches from the Nile to these basins to multiply the irrigated land by a factor of 10. The north of the western desert has two contrasting features: a series of rather high, rather steep hills dropping fast to two extremely deep depressions. One of these depressions is the immense and rich oasis of Siwa. The other is a creepy huge, sun-baked salt swamp known as Qattara.

Mediterannean coast and the lakes: The eastern and central parts of the mediterannean coast are dominated by large prominent lagoons (three lagoons and two lakes) of considerable size. The lakes dominate the ecosystem here, they are major breeding grounds for fish and the compromise between fisheries and conservation is a hot topic with an annual cycle of conflicts with the government. In the delta the lake hinterlands are also major rice paddies and important vineyards. Overall this region produces almost all Egypt's rice, most of it's grapes, and half it's fish. West of Alexandria there are no lagoons but rain water and springs gave this area some very productive groves and pastures. The far west is a poor desert steppe pasture known as Marmarica.

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