Landscape

Egypt is located in the north-eastern corner of Africa and is today bounded by Libya to the west, Israel to the north-east and Sudan to the south. The Mediterranean Sea provides a natural boundary to the North of the country whilst the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea form part of Egypt's boundary to the east. The country has six main physical regions: the Nile Valley, the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has a very arid climate with the majority of the landscape being dominated by large deserts to the east and west of the Nile River with vegetation occurring only in the Nile Valley, the Nile Delta and pockets of desert Oases.

Egypt's most important geographical feature is the Nile River. Its annual inundation and the fertile mud and silt it brought to the Nile Valley and Delta had the greatest impact on the ancient Egyptian people and the development of their culture. The Nile is the longest river on earth and is fed from two main tributaries, the Blue Nile and White Nile. These two rivers meet at Khartoum in Sudan and form one huge river which winds its way from the south of the country north to where it ends in the Nile Delta and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile divides Egypt into two main regions; Upper Egypt (Aswan - Cairo) and Lower Egypt (Nile Delta). These regions were further divided by the ancient Egyptians into Nomes (territorial divisions), 22 Nomes in Upper Egypt and 20 in Lower Egypt.

Fun Facts About the Geography

• The Nile River is fed from Lake Victoria and Lake Tana in the south and flows into the Mediterranean sea in the north.
• The Nile is the longest river in the world. The Nile enters the Mediterranean Sea just north of Cairo.
• The Nile has regular flooding seasons that give the land the nourishment it needs to sustain life.
• Southern Egypt’s landscape contains low mountains and desert. Northern Egypt has wide valleys near the Nile, and desert to the east and west.
• The land is split into three desert regions: the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert and the Sinai Desert.
• The Western Desert is arid and without wadis (dry beds of seasonal rivers), while the Eastern Desert is extensively dissected by wadis and fringed by rugged mountains in the east. The desert of central Sinai is open country, broken by isolated hills and scored by wadis.

Created by: Jenna Orlando, Pryor Middle School