Egypt and the River Nile
Egypt covers in total land area of almost 1 million square kilometers, about twice the area of France. Only 5 percent of the land, along the fertile banks of the River Nile, is occupied by Egypt’s 77 million people.
The capital city, Cairo, with a population of over 20 million inhabitants, is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.
The Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the home of Cleopatra, has a population of 4 million people, and 29 million people live in the Nile Delta.
Egypt’s second great waterway, the Suez Canal, is the main trade route between Europe and the Americas, and the oil rich Middle East, India and the Far East.
The Nile is the longest river in the world, flowing for 6,690kilometres (1,158 miles), from Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania to the Mediterranean Sea. Along the Nile’s 1,440 kilometers (895 miles) journey through Egypt lie treasures left by one of the world’s greatest civilizations. The banks of the River Nile are a living museum of over 3,000 years of history, from the Pharaoh’s pyramids, temples and cities, to the splendid architecture of Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic cultures.
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