EGYPT (e'j)'tpt), (Heb. mists-rah'yim ; Gr. At-rtnrros, whence the modern Kopt through the Arabic Qibt).
1.'General Features. (1) Topography. An cient Egypt was divided into three geographical sections—Upper Egypt in the south ; Middle Egypt in the center ; and Lower Egypt, or the Delta. in the north. Upper Egypt is very narrow and bounded by mountains of no great height which rarely take the form of peaks. The northern coast of Egypt is low and barren, presenting no feature of interest, and affording no indication of the character of the country which it bounds. It is because of the almost entire absence of rain that no vegetation whatever is found on the desert rock formations to the east and the west of the valley of the Nile. In shape Egypt is like a lily with a crooked stem. The long stalk of the lily is the Nile valley itself, which is a ravine scooped in the rocky soil for seven hundred miles, from the first cataract to the apex of the Delta, sometimes not more than a mile broad, never more than eight or ten miles. No other country in the world is so strangely shaped, so long compared to its width, so straggling, so hard to go over from a single center.
Only the immediate valley of the Nile is arable soil, and this is a very narrow strip. In the Delta there is a far wider stretch of cultivable land, ow ing to the fact that the Nile here divides into numerous branches, but even here not all the land is available for cultivation, owing to numerous great swamps and large lakes. In antiquity the greater part of the Delta was swamp and meadow land; and its chief value lay in the fact that It was a good grazing country, and that its swamps and lakes made fine hunting grounds, abounding as they did in all sorts of aquatic birds. The lakes were full of fish, so that fishing was added to graz ing and hunting, and thus the country possessed considerable resources even before agriculture be came profitable. It is well known that Egypt owes this strip of good land to the Nile. In situation, natural strength and great resources, the political advantages of Egypt can hardly be overestimated.
Egypt lies in the very route of the trade between Europe and Asia, and between Africa and the other two continents. "It is the gate of Africa, and the fort which commands the way from Eu rope to the East Indies.' The natural ports of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean always been sufficient for its commerce, which that great inland waterway — the Nile — has greatly aug mented.
(2) The Nile. From the remotest antiquity it has been said that Egypt "is the Gift of the Nile." No artificial methods of renewing the soil could possibly equal what nature has here gratuitously provided in the deposits from the annual over flows of this renowned river. When these floods have subsided the fields are again left dry and are covered with a rich mud. The husbandman has only to sow the seed and gather in the har vest, since the soil requires little or no labor. These overflows have thus caused this famous land, in the midst of surrounding deserts, to be come one of the most fertile regions of the globe and, in consequence, the granary of antiquity. The Nile takes its rise in equatorial Africa, in the two great lakes, the Albert and Victoria Nyanzas. The great Victoria Nyanza lies in a zone where rain falls all the year round. The Nile is the only river in the world which is considerably larger in its upper course than it is towards its mouth. From the junction of the Atbara to its mouth, a dis tance of x,68o miles. it receives no tributary, while its waters are diminished by evaporation, by ab sorption in the soil, and by the system of irrigation which extends the whole distance. The river gets less and less in size as it flows through this rain less land to the soil of which it supplies, by count less irrigation channels, more water than rain would supply. The White Nile, as above stated, takes its rise from the great lakes and tablelands lying under the equator. The Blue Nile takes its rise far to the southeast. out of the tablelands of Abyssinia, and joins the White Nile at Khartoum.