365 Days of Climate Awareness 243 – Introduction to Egypt

Egypt is one of the world’s ancient cultural centers, with signs of human inhabitation extending more than ten thousand years in the past, but this is likely due only to poor preservation of remains around one of the world’s great rivers, the Nile. The country itself extends across the boundary between Africa and the Middle East, two separate tectonic plates connected by the Sinai Peninsula. The Nile, whose major headwater is Lake Victoria at the juncture of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, has been flowing for more than 25 million years. Until modern times Egyptian society focused on the Nile and its annual flood cycle, which brought fresh soil to the agriculture-dependent imperial society through many dynasties of rulers, both local and remote.

Map of Egypt.

Modern Egypt declared its independence from Britain in 1922, as a constitutional monarchy, which persisted until 1953. Government then passed to a republic, which has existed in several forms (most recently a virtual military dictatorship) since then. In the 1960’s Egypt entered industrialized society via the Aswan High Dam, which brought a large degree of flood control to the lower Nile, as well as electricity to the country of Egypt. The lower portion of the Nile is now connected to a huge system of irrigation canals, so that the river’s flow, along with its annual flood, is distributed much more evenly throughout the farming region around it.

 Köppen-Geiger  climate zones, 1980-2016

Egypt’s population is roughly 104 million, and it covers about 1 million km² (390 million mi²), about one-third again the size of Texas. Its economy depends mostly on petroleum, agriculture and tourism, which has suffered in recent years due to COVID and political violence. The petroleum industry is centered on the Nile delta. Egypt is the largest exporter of dry natural gas (produced without associated liquids) in Africa.

Pyramids, with modern city beyond.

Egypt is the most populous country in the Middle East and is therefore an important regional power. It is the Suez Canal, completed in 1869, however, which defines Egypt’s geopolitical role as a major trade link between Europe and East Asia. Climatically Egypt is very simple: hot and arid.

Hatshepsut, only female Pharaoh (ca. 18th c. BCE), as a Sphinx.

Tomorrow: the Nile.

Be brave, and be well.