A Report on Plague Investigations in Egypt

Abstract

The two generally recognized divisions of the country are the Delta (Lower Egypt), extending from the Mediterranean littoral to Cairo; and Upper Egypt, the narrow strip of alluvial soil in the Nile Valley from Cairo to Wadi Halfa. The valley of the Nile is a rift valley formed by the subsidence of a narrow belt in the neighbourhood of a line of fracture on the earth's surface; from Cairo to Aswân town its length is 880 kilometres (547 miles), and its width varies from 3 to 21 kilometres (2 to 13 miles). The province of the Faiyûm is a depression which is irrigated from the Nile by the Bahr Yûsef Canal, one of the old natural drainage channels of the valley.