Contemporary Environmental Readings Volume 3

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is located in northeastern Africa for the most part of its territory and part of the Sinai Peninsula, in Asia. Egypt is the only country with a land bridge between Africa and Asia. Egypt is world renowned for being one of the first civilizations to develop irrigated agriculture, literacy, urbanization ... etc. This civilization whose sections are still preserved today is the fruit of past Christian, GrecoRoman, and former aboriginal heritage of the country. Egypt has been distinguished into four Agro-ecological zones on basis of climate in combination with the physiography, natural resources, agriculture and other factors affecting the socioeconomic activities. These zones include the Nile Valley and Delta, North Coastal Zone, the Inland Sinai and Eastern Desert and the Western Desert. The sustainability of Egyptian agriculture was made possible first of all by the annual flood of the Nile and the deposition of fertile alluvial soil containing phosphorus and other minerals and traces of organic debris brought down from the mountains and swamps of lands further south.