EGYPT. A country occupying the northeast corner of Africa. Egypt proper extends from the Mediterranean south to the latitude of 22° N. (For an account of the agreement between the British and Egyptian governments, January 19, 1599. see EGYPTIAN SimAN.) Thu boundary on the east is the Red Sea, and on flue extreme northeast Syria. The western boundary, fixed by the lirman of 1541, starting from the Mediterra nean at about the 25th meridian of east longi tude. runs southwest to the southeast corner of Tripoli, and thence southeast to a point about 200 miles west of \Valli Haifa. In addition, 'the oasis regions in the eastern third of the Libyan Desert belong to Egypt. The northernuiost point of the country is in latitude 31° 40' N. Egypt thus extends 673 miles north and south, with a general breadth of about 500 miles. Its area is about 400.000 square miles, but the cultivated region in the Nile Valley and Delta includes only about 10.000 square miles. about 9,000,000 people being crowded into a space about as large as the area of New lin mpshire. The vast called the Egyptian Sudan, extending southward from Egypt into equatorial Africa. is governed by Great Britain and Egypt jointly.
ToPoctrAeur. Egypt is a part of the great desert zone of North Africa, most of it being compara tively level sand waste, varying in elevation from WO to 1600 feet above the sea. Four natural features distinguish parts of the country from the expanses of sand that stretch away in all directions. To the west of the Nile, in the barren,. wastes of the Libyan Desert, are many little regions of depression where the surface is below sea-level, or only a few hundred feet above it. Oases occur in these regions, deriving their water by infiltration from the Nile or from other sources of subterranean supply. The desert conditions of this part of the Sahara are more pronounced than in any other region of the world; but a considerable population inhabit the oases, and ,lof, in the Kufra group, was the home of the Senussi Mandi, whose followers, in various parts of Africa and Asia, number some mil lions of _Mohammedans. (See MOHAMMEDANISM,
The second distinctive feature lies to the east of the Nile—a district of mountains. The roughly oblong piece of country between the Nile and the tied Sea, with Cairo and Suez as its north ern, and Assuan and Berenice as its southern cor ners, is a mountainous desert, 150 miles broad, rising gradually front the Nile over sandy wastes and hills of secondary formation for 100 miles, where the elevation is about 2000 feet. Down the centre runs a main ridge or backbone of granite or primary roeks. from which the desert slopes more steeply and evenly to the sea. Clouds hang around the tops of there mountains in winter and there is sufficient precipitation to provide water and herbage for the scanty flocks of the Bedouins. Along the Red Sea is a line of jagged moun tains whose highest summit is about 7000 feet. The third distinctive feature lies south of Assuan—a region of desert hills and of pitiless sand plains. the northern part of the Nubian Desert. This district is bordered on the west by the Nile with its thin fringe of vegetation. The fourth distinctive feature is the valley of the Nile.
The First Cataract. the only one in Egypt. is just south of Assuan. The course of the Nile from the southern boundary of Egypt to the sea is about 800 miles. The Lower Nile. front Assuan to Cairo at the head of the Delta. is much visited by tourists. This riverain region. fertilized by flood waters and irrigation canals for an average breadth of nine miles. yields large crops. The Delta, from Cairo to the :\rediterranean, covered a network of navigable streams and irriga tion canals, is the garden of Egypt. Most of the population and agricultural interests are grouped ]:ere, with Cairo, the political and administrative centre, nn one side, and Alexandria. the ebief port and commercial centre, on the other. On the west side of the Nile, southwest of Cairo, is the depressed valley of Fayuni, a fertile tract, in the northern part of which is the lake called llirket el-Kerun.