airo and Alexandria with Suez and with almost
every town in the Delta. From Cairo to Suez via Ismailia is a distance
of 160 m. Before the Suez Canal was opened passengers and goods were
taken to Suez from Cairo by a railway 84 m. long which ran across the
desert. This line, now disused, had itself superseded the "overland
route" organized by Lieut. Thomas Waghorn, R.N., c. 1830, for the
conveyance of passengers and mails to India. In Upper Egypt a line, 40
m. long, runs west from Wasta, a station 56 m. S. of Cairo, to Abuksa
in the Fayum mudiria. Another railway goes from Kharga Junction, a
station on the main line 24 m. S. of Girga, to the oasis of Kharga.
These lines are privately owned.

In the Delta the light railways supplement the ordinary lines and
connect the villages with the towns and seaports. There are over 700
m. of these lines. The railway development of Egypt has not been very
rapid. In 1880 944 m. of state lines were open; in 1900 the figure was
1393, and in 1905, 1688. For several years before 1904 the
administration of the railways was carried on by an international or
mixed board for the security of foreign creditors. In the year named
the railways came directly under the control of the Egyptian
government, which during the next four years spent LE.3,000,000 on
improving and developing the lines. In the five years 1902-1906 the
capital value of the state railways increased from LE.20,383,000 to
LE.23,200,000 and the net earnings from LE.1,059,000 to LE. 1,475,000.
The number of passengers carried in the same period rose from 12-1/2
to over 22 millions, and the weight of goods from slightly under
3,000,000 to nearly 6,750,000 tons. In 1906 the light railways carried
nearly a million tons of goods and over 6,800,000 passengers.

Westward from Alexandria a railway, begun in 1904 by the khedive,
Abbas II., runs parallel with the coast, and is intended to be
continued to Tripoli. The line forms the eastern end of the great
railway system which will eventually extend from Tangier to
Alexandria.

The Nile is navigable throughout its course in Egypt, and is largely
used as a means of cheap transit of heavy goods. Lock and bridge tolls
were abolished in 1899 and 1901 respectively. As a result, river
traffic greatly increased. Above Cairo the Nile is the favourite
tourist route, while between Shellal (Assuan) and the Sudan frontier
it