Geography

At 1,001,450 km sq, Egypt is the world's thirtieth-largest country (after Mauritania). It is twice the size of France and nearly eight times the size of England.

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.

Egypt is bordered by Libya on the west, Sudan on the south, and by Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip on the northeast. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea.

Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a big, sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over one hundred feet high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the 'red land' in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats.

Towns and cities include:

• Al-Minya
• Alexandria (one of the greatest ancient cities)
• Aswan (one of the driest inhabited places in the world)
• Asyut
• Cairo (the modern Egyptian capital)
• El-Mahalla El-Kubra (one of the largest cities in Egypt)
• Giza (the site of the Pyramid of Khufu)
• Hurghada
• Luxor (site of the ancient city of Thebes)
• Kom Ombo (agricultural town famous for its temple)
• Port Safaga (on the Red Sea, and known for its black sand-dunes and mineral springs)
• Port Said
• Sharm el Sheikh
• Suez (where the Suez Canal is located)
• Zagazig

Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa.