EGYPT, a country in n.e. Africa, extending from the Mediterranean to the first cataract of the Nile, that of Syene, from lat. 24° 6' to 31° 30' north. The name is derived from the Greek Aigyptos, a word of uncertain derivation, and as old as the age of Homer. In the hieroglyphs and Coptic, it was called Kenzi or the Black land, from the color of the soil, and by the Hebrews Masr or ,Ifiteraim, modified by the. Assyrians into Mitsr, and by the Persians into Mialraya. The country may be described as the bed of the Nile, the cultivated territory only extending to the limits of the inundation. This river runs from the cataracts of Assouan, in a northerly direction, to Denderah, where there is one great bend to the w. ; and a few miles n. of Cairo (hit. 30° n.), the river divides into two main streams, forming the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The other five mouths, which existed in antiquity, have silted up; the alluvial district inclosed by these mouths, and supposed by the ancients to have been gained from the sea, formed the ancient Delta. The basin of the Nile is formed by the ranges of the Arabian hills on the e., and the Libyan on the w. side. The rate of deposit of mud is supposed to be about 6 in. in a century. The eastern chain of mountains rises to about 1000 ft. above the level of the sea. The great physical peculiarity of E. is the absence of rain, the land being only irrigated by the annual overflow of the Nile. The climate is remark ably mild and sound, especially s. of the Delta; and in the desert, from Cairo to Alex andria, the air contains more moisture than to the south. From the middle of Aug. to Dec., w. winds prevail; e. winds from that time till Mar.; after that, unhealthy s. winds or Khamsin till June; and from June till Aug. the n. or Etesian winds. Earthquakes are Occasionally felt; and the temperature varies from 84° F. to 32°. The most remark able phenomenon is, however, the regular increase of the Nile, fed, by the fall of the tropical rains, which commence in 11 n. lat., in the spring; and falling first into the White, and then Blue Nile, reach E. in the middle, and the Delta in the end of June. In the middle of July, the red water appears, and the rise may be dated from that time; it attains its maximum at the end of Sept., and begins to decline visibly in the middle of
Oct., and subsides to its minimum in April. At the end of Nov. the irrigated land has dried, and is sown, and is covered with green crops, which last till the end of Feb. In Mar. is the harvest. The state of the Nile, in fact, marks the season more accurately than the variation of temperature. E. is by no means remarkably healthy, as, in addition to the visitations of plague and cholera, ophthalmia, diarrhea, dysentery, and boils often prevail, and European, and even Niirritic races cannot be acclimatized.
Geology.—E. is separated from Nubia by a low hilly region about 50 m. broad from n. to a., composed of granitic rocks. The same crystalline rocks extend up the shore of the Red sea to near the opening of the gulf of Suez, stretching inland for fully 30 miles. The scenery in this district is wild and rude, and the course of the Nile is frequently interrupted by cliffs and broken masses of granite, forming magnificent cataracts. The granitic region terminates at Assouan, the ancient Syene. From the rocks here were obtained the materials for the colossal and monolithic monuments of Egypt. The val ley of Upper E. is bounded by two ranges of hills running northward—the Arabian range on the right, the Libyan on the left of the river, both alike composed of cretaceous strata, the predominant rock being sandstone. This is a durable and easily worked stone, and was consequently extensively used in the erection of ancient temples. The city of Thebes was built of it. The cretaceous sandstone extends from the granitic rocks form ing the first cataract at Assouan for about 85 m. to Esne, where it is covered by a lime stone belonging to the upper chalk series. This continues on both sides of the valley for about 130 m., when it is covered by a tertiary nummulite limestone, which forms the further prolongation northward of both ranges of hills. Because of the easy disintegra tion of these beds, the scenery in the limestone districts is tame and monotonous; fre quent table-lands occur, on one of which are built the three pyramids of Gizeh, the material employed being the predominant limestone.