t nearly all the land which is called Egypt on the map is
barren sandy desert, or wild rocky hill-country, where no one can live.
The real Egypt is just a narrow strip of land on either side of the
great River Nile, sometimes only a mile or two broad altogether, never
more than thirty miles broad, except near the mouth of the river, where
it widens out into the fan-shaped plain called the Delta. Someone has
compared Egypt to a lily with a crooked stem, and the comparison is very
true. The long winding valley of the Nile is the crooked stem of the
lily, and the Delta at the Nile mouth, with its wide stretch of fertile
soil, is the flower; while, just below the flower, there is a little
bud--a fertile valley called the Fayum.

Long before even Egyptian history begins, there was no bloom on the
lily. The Nile, a far bigger river then than it is now, ran into the sea
near Cairo, the modern capital of Egypt; and the land was nothing but
the narrow valley of the river, bordered on either side by desert hills.
But gradually, century by century, the Nile cut its way deeper down into
the land, leaving banks of soil on either side between itself and the
hills, and the mud which it brought down in its waters piled up at its
mouth and pressed the sea back, till, at last, the Delta was formed,
much as we see it now. This was long before Egypt had any story of its
own; but even after history begins the Delta was still partly marshy
land, not long reclaimed from the sea, and the real Egyptians of the
valley despised the people who lived there as mere marsh-dwellers. Even
after the Delta was formed, the whole country was only about twice as
large as Wales, and, though there was a great number of people in it for
its size, the population was only, at the most, about twice as great as
that of London.

An old Greek historian once said, "Egypt is the gift of the Nile," and
it is perfectly true. We have seen how the great river made the country
to begin with, cutting out the narrow valley through the hills, and
building up the flat plain of the Delta. But the Nile has not only made
the country; it keeps it alive. You know that Egypt has always been one
of the most fertile lands in the world. Almost anything will grow there,
and it produces wonderful crops of corn and vegetables, and, nowadays,
of cotton. It was the same in old days. When Rome was the capital of the
world, she used to get most of the corn to feed her hungry thousands
from E