Geography & Climate

Location                                                                                                             

Egypt is located in North Africa and on the Sinai Peninsula. The country covers 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,662 square miles).

The Mediterranean Sea is to the north of Egypt;Palestine, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Red Sea are to the east; Sudan is to the south; and Libya is to the west.

Topography

Less than 10 percent of the land area of Egypt is settled or under cultivation. This fertile territory consists of the valley and delta of the Nile and a number of desert oases. More than 90 percent of the country is desert, including the Western Desert in the west—a part of the Sahara—and the   Eastern Desert, which borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez in the east.

The Western Desert, includes a vast, sandy expanse called the Great Sand Sea. Located here are several depressions with elevations below sea level, including the Qattara Depression, which has an area of about 18,100 square kilometers (about 6,988 square miles) and reaches a depth of 134 meters (440 feet) below sea level, the lowest point in Africa. Also found here are the oases of Siwa, Kh�rijah, Bahriyah, Far�firah, and D�khilah.

Much of the Eastern Desert occupies a plateau that rises gradually east from the Nile Valley to elevations of about 610 meters (about 2,001 feet) in the east. The plateau is broken along the Red Sea coast by jagged peaks as high as about 2,134 meters (about 7,000 feet) above sea level. In the extreme south, along the border with Sudan, is the Nubian Desert, an extensive region of dunes and sandy plains.

The Sinai Peninsula consists of sandy desert in the north and rugged mountains in the south, with summits more than 2,134 meters (more than 7,001 feet) above the Red Sea. Mount Sinai (2,637 meters/8,652 feet), the highest elevation in Egypt, is among the peaks on the peninsula

Major Rivers and Lakes

The Nile enters Egypt from Sudan and flows north for about 1,545 kilometers (about 960 miles) to the Mediterranean Sea. Geographically and traditionally, the Nile Valley is divided into two regions, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, the former consisting of the delta area and the latter comprising the valley south of Cairo. At the Sudan border lies Lake Nasser, a huge reservoir formed by the Asw�n High Dam.

South of a point near the town of Idf�, the Nile Valley is rarely more than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) wide. From Idf� to Cairo, the valley is about 23 kilometers (about 14 miles) in width, with most of the arable portion on the western side. In the vicinity of Cairo the valley merges with the delta, which occupies about 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) of the Mediterranean coastline.

Climate

Egypt has a hot  season from May to September and a cool season from November to March. . In the coastal region, temperatures range between a mean annual maximum of 37�C (99�F) and a mean annual minimum of 14�C (57�F).

The most humid area in Egypt is along the Mediterranean coast, where the average annual rainfall is about 200 millimeters (about 8 inches). Annual precipitation levels decrease rapidly to the south. Cairo receives only about 25 millimeters (about 1 inch) of rain per year, and in many desert locations it may rain only once in several years.