Egypt+Geograpy

__E g y p t' s __ __ G e o g r a p h y __ Elevation Extremes:  Highest Point: Mount Cathrine 2,629 m   Lowest Point: Qattara Depression 133 m  Major Cities:   Cairo: Cairo is an ancient city that has been occupied for over 3,500 years. In Arabic "Cairo" means Victorious. In the time period of 1170-1345 Cairo became one of the world's largest cities with a population of about 500,000.The layout of the city is very similar of what is was during that time. Cairo's importance derived from its role as a center for the production and export of textiles and refined sugar and for goods manufactured from cotton, flax, and sugar cane. Cairo was also a transshipment center for overland trade from India and Africa to Europe. The plague known as the Black death devastated Cairo and the rest of egypt between 1347 and1350. The plague killed about 40 percent of the country's population. Cairo quickly lost its preeminent role as transshipment center when the europeans discovered a maritime route to India and China around the Cape of Good Hope. By the time Napoleon had conquered the city in 1798, its population had declined to approximately 200,000.

**Alexandria:**

Alexandria is Egypt's second largest city. Located on the Mediterranean sea's coastline, it has been an important port since it was founded more than 2,300 years ago by Alexander the Great. When the French landed in Alexandria in 1798, barely 10,000 people lived in the city. Alexandria grew substantially in the nineteenth century because of industrialization and Egypt's emergence as an exporter of agricultural commodities to Europe. Between 1821 and 1846, Alexandria's population grew from 12,500 to 164,000. By the end of the century, its population had almost doubled to 320,000. Between 1947 and 1986, Alexandria's population grew from 700,000 to 2.7 million. Alexandria is the country's most important harbor for export and imports.


 * Giza and Shubra al Khaymah: **

Egypt's third and fourth largest cities are Giza and Shubra al Khaymah, are part of greater Cairo. The rapid growth of these cities since 1947 is directly related to the growth of Cairo. Giza (1986 population 1.6 million), opposite the Nile River island of Ar Rawdah, is the location of Cairo University and the famed Pyramids of Giza. Shubra al Khaymah (1986 population 500,000), on the Nile north of Cairo's Bulaq quarter, is a manufacturing suburb with a heavy concentration of textile factories.

Egypt Culture