As in ancient times, the Egypt of today is a hot, arid land whose lifeblood is the Nile River. The Nile, a large, slow moving river running south to north from the Sudan highlands, provides the major source of water for the country. At the mouth of the river is a enormous delta, totaling an area of more than 8500 square miles. To the west of the Nile is a vast desert plain, broken only by the occasional desert oasis. Desert settlements have established themselves around these sources of underground water. Between the Nile and the Red sea lies the Arabian desert, which contains Egypt's most mountainous areas.
The majority of people living in Egypt are Hamitic Arabs, descendants of the Hamites of ancient Egypt and of Arabs who migrated to Egypt. Eighty-six percent of Egyptians are Sunni Muslims, and Islam is the state religion. Islam is also the basis for Egyptian law. The largest minority in Egypt are Coptic Christians, one of the oldest Christian church orders. Arabic is the official language. Ninety five percent of the population of Egypt can be found along the Nile river banks. Of these people, fifty percent live in cities, the majority of the rest in rural agricultural villages. Agriculture is the primary Egyptian industry.
Of the cities in Egypt, Cairo, located just south of the Nile river delta, is the largest. Cairo proper has over 13 million people, with a staggering annual population growth. Housing shortages and insufficient basic services in the major population centers has led to massive urban development projects to meet the needs of the cities residents. Because of their siting, as the cities continue to grow they take over land which is better suited for agriculture, worsening an already desperate problem of insufficient land.
Land reclamation is of key issue to the Egyptian people. The Nile river basin historically has been subject to annual flooding. This has ended due to the extensive dam projects built along the Nile's lengths. The most notable of these projects is the Aswan High Dam, which when flooded created the largest manmade lake in the world. The system of dams was designed to aid in the reclamation of land for agricultural use, and to generate electricity. Unfortunately, time has shown that these projects may have in fact done more harm than good. The desert is encroaching into agricultural land at an alarming rate. Salinization is a constant problem now that the river no longer floods. Nutrients which were once deposited now must be artificially added to the soil. These problems must be solved if Egypt is to sustain its growing populations into the next century.
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