Physiographic Features of Egypt

Map of Egypt’s Physiographic Features

NUBIAN DESERT

Nubian Desert The Nubian Desert is located in northeast Africa, between the Nile River and the Red Sea. It is an approximately 97,000 square mile region of the Sahara Desert. Primarily a sandstone plateau, this arid (dry) region has numerous wadis, or dry watercourses, which fill with water that flows to the Nile during periods of heavy rainfall. The ancient Kushites mined copper and gold from this desert, and traded these metals to Egypt for linen and grain.

NILE DELTA

NILE DELTA The delta of the Nile River is a triangle shaped region located north of Cairo, in northeastern Egypt. Originally, as many as seven branches of the Nile wound through the delta. The delta contains sixty percent of Egypt’s cultivated land (farmland), large areas of marshy wetlands, and shallow lakes. During ancient times, the Egyptians took advantage of the region’s rich soil, gentle winds, and level landscape to develop an extremely productive agricultural system.

ARABIAN DESERT

ARABIAN DESERT The Arabian Desert is the eastern desert of Egypt. It runs from the Nile River in the west to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez in the east. The desert is mountainous and rutted by deep, dry riverbeds. The ancient Egyptians used its abundant quarries of granite, feldspar, and other materials for many of their building projects.

NILE RIVER

NILE RIVER The Nile River is the longest river in the world, stretching 4,160 miles. It flows northward from its headstream in Central Africa to its delta on the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile runs through parts of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire. At six different places along the Nile, crystalline rocks form cataracts, or stretches of rapids and waterfalls that are not navigable. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Egypt was “the gift of the Nile” because its waters supported large scale agriculture, made transportation easier, and provided a variety of edible plants and animals.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

MEDITERRANEAN SEA The Mediterranean Sea is the world’s largest inland sea. Surrounded by Europe, Africa, and Asia, it covers an area approximately of nine hundred and sixty-five thousand square miles. The Mediterranean Sea connects with the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea by way of the Aegean Sea. The shores of the sea are mainly mountainous. Many species of fish, sponges, and coral are abundant in the sea. The ancient Egyptians were originally afraid to sail on the Mediterranean, and so they relied on traders from other lands to bring them goods from Anatolia (Turkey) and Canaan. Eventually, the Egyptians got over their fear and sailed the Mediterranean Sea doing their own trading.

LIBYAN DESERT

LIBYAN DESERT The Libyan Desert is the northeastern part of Africa’s Sahara Desert, the largest desert in the world. The Libyan Desert covers parts of southwestern Egypt, eastern Libya, and northwestern Sudan. The region consists primarily of sand dunes, course, stony plains, and plateaus of bare rock. Although its hot, dry climate is harsher and more forbidding than that of Egypt’s eastern deserts, the oases of this region were known in ancient times for their wines and agricultural products.

Settling Egypt

Settling Ancient Egypt Where did most people in Egypt settle? What are resources the Nile provided/gave to the Egyptians? What is a shaduf and why was it important to Egyptian farmers? What are two reasons why the Egyptians did not have to worry about fighting many enemies? 5) What are the positive and negative aspects of settling in Egypt? Most Egyptians settled along the Nile River. The Nile provides farmable soil from when it flooded, water for bathing/drinking/etc., fish, ducks, geese, and papyrus. A shaduf is a device Egyptian farmers used to irrigate their cultivated fields. It was important because they could water their plants with fresh water to keep their fields fertile. The Egyptians did not have to worry about fighting many enemies because they were protected on 3 sides by deserts and they had plenty of farmland and did not have to conquer others to get more. + - river flooded predictably relying on a river rich soil near river dry environment protected by deserts have to irrigate plenty of resources