Britain and Egypt at the 22 deg. N. The
N.E. frontier is an almost direct line drawn from Taba, near the head of
the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern of the two gulfs into which the Red Sea
divides, to the Mediterranean at Rafa in 34 deg. 15' E. The peninsula of
Sinai, geographically part of Asia, is thus included in the Egyptian
dominions. The total area of the country is about 400,000 sq. m., or
more than three times the size of the British Isles. Of this area
14/15ths is desert. Canals, roads, date plantations, &c., cover 1900 sq.
m.; 2850 sq. m. are comprised in the surface of the Nile, marshes,
lakes, &c. A line corresponding with the 30 deg. N., drawn just S. of
Cairo, divides the country into Lower and Upper Egypt, natural
designations in common use, Lower Egypt being the Delta and Upper Egypt
the Nile valley. By the Arabs Lower Egypt is called Er-Rif, the
cultivated or fertile; Upper Egypt Es Sa'id, the happy or fortunate.
Another division of the country is into Lower, Middle and Upper Egypt,
Middle Egypt in this classification being the district between Cairo and
Assiut.

_General Character._--The distinguishing features of Egypt are the Nile
and the desert. But for the river there would be nothing to
differentiate the country from other parts of the Sahara. The Nile,
however, has transformed the land through which it passes. Piercing the
desert, and at its annual overflow depositing rich sediment brought from
the Abyssinian highlands, the river has created the Delta and the
fertile strip in Upper Egypt. This cultivable land is Egypt proper; to
it alone is applicable the ancient name--"the black land." The _Misr_ of
the Arabs is restricted to the same territory. Beyond the Nile valley
east and west stretch great deserts, containing here and there fertile
oases. The general appearance of the country is remarkably uniform. The
Delta is a level plain, richly cultivated, and varied alone by the lofty
dark-brown mounds of ancient cities, and the villages set in groves of
palm-trees, standing on mounds often, if not always, ancient. Groves of
palm-trees are occasionally seen besides those around the villages, but
other trees are rare. In Upper Egypt the Nile valley is very narrow and
is bounded by mountains of no great height. They form the edge of the
desert on either side of the valley, of which the bottom is level rock.
The mountains rarely take the form of peaks. Sometimes they approach the
river in bold promontories,