and at others are divided by the dry beds of
ancient watercourses. The bright green of the fields, the reddish-brown
or dull green of the great river, contrasting with the bare yellow
rocks, seen beneath a brilliant sun and a deep-blue sky, present views
of great beauty. In form the landscape varies little and is not
remarkable; in colour its qualities are always splendid, and under a
general uniformity show a continual variety.

_The Coast Region._--Egypt has a coast-line of over 600 m. on the
Mediterranean and about 1200 m. on the Red Sea. The Mediterranean
coast extends from the Gulf of Sollum on the west to Rafa on the east.
From the gulf to the beginning of the Delta the coast is rock-bound,
but slightly indented, and possesses no good harbourage. The cliffs
attain in places a height of 1000 ft. They are the termination of a
stony plateau, containing several small oases, which southward joins
the more arid and uninhabitable wastes of the Libyan Desert. The Delta
coast-line, composed of sandhills and, occasionally, limestone rocks,
is low, with cape-like projections at the Nile mouths formed by the
river silt. Two bays are thus formed, the western being the famous Bay
of Aboukir. It is bounded W. by a point near the ancient Canopic
mouth, eastward by the Rosetta mouth. Beyond the Delta eastward the
coast is again barren and without harbours. It rises gradually
southward, merging into the plateau of the Sinai peninsula. The Red
Sea coast is everywhere mountainous. The mountains are the northern
continuation of the Abyssinian table-land, and some of the peaks are
over 6000 ft. above the sea. The highest peaks, going from north to
south, are Jebels Gharib, Dukhan, Es Shayib, Fatira, Abu Tiur, Zubara
and Hammada (Hamata). The coast has a general N.N.W. and S.S.E. trend,
and, save for the two gulfs into which it is divided by the massif of
Sinai, is not deeply indented. Where the frontier between Egypt and
the Sudan reaches the sea is Ras Elba (see further RED SEA).

_The Nile Valley_ (see also NILE).--Entering Egypt proper, a little
north of the Second Cataract, the Nile flows through a valley in
sandstone beds of Cretaceous age as far as 25 deg. N., and throughout
this part of its course the valley is extremely narrow, rarely
exceeding 2 m. in width. At two points, namely, Kalabsha--the valley
here being only 170 yds. wide and the river over 100 ft. deep--and