Egypt Geography Profile 2012

There are regions, Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt, Upper Egypt and Nubia.

Egypt multiplies extremes: the majority populous Arab country, 90% of its people lives in a fertile strip along the Nile (24 km at its widest point near the Fayum, on average 10 km, but can be just hundred meters). The rest is desert.

* To the south, the Nile runs into a mountain barrier, as it moves north, the landscape becomes increasingly flat and arid.
* North of Cairo, the valley turns into a vast delta of 200 km wide, similar to a wide range fertile plunging into the Mediterranean Sea.
* East of the valley is the Arabian desert to the west the Libyan desert, arid plateau punctuated by bizarre geological formations and lush oases.
* To the east, across the Suez Canal, lies the Sinai Peninsula, extending from the Arabian desert, where Mount Catherine rises to 2642 meters.

Egypt, at the northeast corner of Africa on the Mediterranean Sea, is bordered on the west by Libya, on the south by the Sudan, and on the east by the Red Sea and Israel.

Egypt is divided into unequal, extremely arid regions by the landscape's dominant feature, the northward-flowing Nile River. The Nile starts 100 mi (161 km) south of the Mediterranean and fans out to a sea front of 155 mi between the cities of Alexandria and Port Said.