e'jipt, a country in the northeastern part of Africa, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the 22nd degree of north latitude and from Syria on the east to Tripoli on the west. The northern boundary is the Mediterranean Sea, the eastern, Syria and the Red Sea; the southern, an arbitrary line drawn from the Red Sea to a point about 200 miles west of Wadi Halfa. From here a northwest line extends to the southeastern point of Tripoli; thence the boundary extends due northward to the Mediterranean. The minor coast waters include the gulfs of Suez and Akabah, between which is the Sinai peninsula. The extent of the country from east to west and from north to south is about equal, being nearly 490 miles, and the area within the boundaries described is 400,000 square miles, or a little more than twice that of Montana, though the government extends over Egyptian Sudan and a vast area to the west, known as the Libyan Desert. Within the area of Egypt proper only about 13,000 square miles are subject to cultivation. SURFACE AND DRAINAGE. Historically and geographically Egypt is divided into two parts: Lower Egypt, extending from the Mediterranean to Cairo, and including what is known as the Delta Region; and Upper Egypt, extending from Cairo to the southern boundary. The Delta Region is nearly triangular in shape. Its greatest extent from east to west is about 150 miles, and from north to south, 120 miles. This consists entirely of land made by the silt deposited from the river; it is low and level, contains many branches of the river, as well as numerous canals, and is very fertile. Within this region the greater part of the population of the country lives. The habitable portion of Upper Egypt consists of the valley of the Nile, which varies in width from 15 miles, north of Cairo, to about 2 miles, farther up the stream. To the east of the Nile is a hilly and mountainous country, generally known as the Arabian Desert, but it should not be confounded with the desert of the same name in Asia. This region rises gradually by successive elevations until the highest altitudes are found on the borders of the Red Sea and attain about 7000 feet, though the average altitude is much less than this. The surface is characterized by sand barren rocks, and nearly all of the region is devoid of vegetation, except in a few places where there is sufficient moisture to afford scanty support for the flocks of the Bedouins. To the west of the Nile is the great Libyan Desert, a sandy plain which is nearly level, but has in a few places depressed areas, whose surface is below the level of the sea. Most of these depressions are watered from subterranean sources or by canals leading to them from the Nile, and they constitute the oases of the desert; some of them are very fertile and all are under the government of Egypt. MINERAL RESOURCES. The most important minerals are building stone, consisting of granite, porphyry, limestone and sandstone. Of these the granite found near Syene, from which it was named syenite, is the most durable and has been known for the longest time. It was from these quarries that most of the rock for the great pyramids and for many of the ancient temples was obtained. The other stones are also valuable building stones and are now used to a considerable extent. Because of the drifting sands, many deposits of minerals are undoubtedly covered. Engineers who have recently examined the country report that possibly gold mining can be made profitable along the beds of certain dry streams and in other localities, though there has been no attempt at working the deposits. CLIMATE. Egypt is a land of clear skies and dry atmosphere. On the Mediterranean coast about 8 inches of rain falls during the year, while at Cairo the rainfall never exceeds 1 1/2 inches, but at the extreme south there is a considerable rainfall. Less than one-fifth of the days are cloudy. Lower Egypt has a more even temperature than the desert region, removed from the influence of the sea. At Alexandria the temperature seldom reaches freezing point, but in the hot season, during the period of khamsin, it may reach as high as 110 deg. or 115 deg. During the fall and winter the prevailing winds are from the north and northwest, while in the spring and summer they are from the south. April and May are characterized by the khamsin, which produces a high temperature and fills the air with sand (See KHAMSIN). The inhabitants divide the year into three seasons: the period extending from November to March; the summer, from March to June, and the period of inundation, from July to November. INDUSTRIES. Agriculture is the chief industry of the country and affords employment to more than two-thirds of the people who have a fixed occupation. The most important food plants are the date palm, wheat, rice, millet, vegetables and sugar cane. Besides these, various tropical and semi-tropical fruits are raised. Agriculture depends entirely upon irrigation and can be practiced only where water is obtainable. Because of this, the valley of the Nile is the only habitable portion of the country. The Delta Region is provided with irrigation throughout the year, and here three crops can be grown. Of these, wheat and other cereals are raised between November and March, at the time when water is the most plentiful; cotton and sugar cane mature between March and June, and maize and vegetables during the other months of the year. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and notwithstanding the primitive methods of cultivation, excellent crops are obtained. Since the construction of the barrage across the Nile at Cairo to raise the water in the river, a much larger area of the lower land is subject to irrigation, while the construction of the great dam at Assuan regulates the supply of water for the year (See ASSUAN; IRRIGATION). Most of the land is rented by those who work it. Manufactures are comparatively unimportant, and the only manufactured article having any considerable export is cigars. Tobacco might be raised in the country, but since 1890 its production has been prohibited by the government, because the quality grown is inferior to that imported from Turkey, and its use would curtail the demand for Egyptian-made cigars. In Lower Egypt there are a few sugar refineries and a number of cotton mills. TRANSPORTATION. The Nile is navigable for small steamers as far as the first cataract, which is just north of the southern boundary. The country contains 1400 miles of railway, which is owned and operated by the government, and about 800 miles of so-called agricultural roads, operated by private corporations. These roads connect the agricultural regions with the main lines of railway and provide transportation for the produce of the country. the northern division of the Cape-to-Cairo railroad has been constructed as far as Khartum, about 1200 miles south of Cairo. Telegraph communication between the principal cities and with other countries is complete and a fairly good postal system is maintained. The commerce of the country is comparatively small and is confined to the necessities of the population. The imports consist of manufactured goods, particularly textiles, some food products and machinery, while the exports consist of cigars, cotton and sugar. Egyptian cotton is of the long staple variety (See COTTON) and finds a ready market at high prices in England and other cotton manufacturing countries. INHABITANTS. The great bulk of the population consists of Egyptians; the lower class are styled fellahs and constitute by far the majority of the people. In the towns are found many Arabians, Bedouins and Copts, while the foreign element includes Greeks, Italians, English, French, Russians, Germans and some nationalities from Asia. In the rural districts and smaller towns the inhabitants are almost wholly Egyptian, while in Alexandria and Cairo the foreign element is in the ascendency. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION. The government is an hereditary monarchy, and the ruler is styled the khedive. Theoretically the powers of the ruler are absolute, but practically they are much curtailed. He is assisted by a council of state, composed of six ministers, who have charge, respectively, of the departments of interior, finance, justice, war, public works and public instruction, and foreign affairs. Theoretically, Egypt is tributary to Turkey, and the government pays the sultan a fixed sum, but practically Egypt is a British dependency. Because of French and British financial interests in the country, the governments of these two countries jointly assumed control of the finances of the Egyptian government in 1879, but in 1883 the control passed to Great Britain, which placed a financial agent in Egypt, and the powers of this agent have been gradually extended until now he is practically at the head of the government. In religion nearly all of the people are Mohammedans. A few of the Copts belong to the Abyssinian Church, and in the large towns are found adherents of the Roman Catholic and other forms of Christian faith, but these are nearly all among the foreigners. CITIES. The important cities are Cairo, the capital; Alexandria, the principal seaport; Rosetta and Damietta, at the mouths of the Nile, and Suez and Port Said, at either end of the Suez Canal. See ALEXANDRIA; CAIRO; SUEZ CANAL. HISTORY. The Egyptians are the earliest people known to us as a nation. By the beginning of the fifth century B. C., they were living under a settled government; they had built cities, invented hieroglyphic signs and improved them almost into an alphabet. The arrangement of the Egyptian chronology is still a much disputed point among scholars. A list of the kings, arranged in thirty dynasties, was made by the priest Manetho in the third century B. C., and this division is still used. The fourth dynasty, distinguished as the "Pyramid Dynasty," was the most important in early Egyptian history. It was at its height about 2700 or 2800 B. C. and left as its monuments the greatest of the pyramids (See PYRAMIDS). The twelfth dynasty, which seems to have begun about 2000 B. C., exercised a just and able rule over a prosperous country. Literature especially flourished during this period. About 1700 B. C., Egypt was conquered by a people whose rulers were called the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. Nothing is known of these people, except that they had first conquered western Arabia and Syria. The Theban princes seem to have preserved a state of semi-independence under the Hyksos rulers, and at last a revolt arose which ended by the Shepherd kings being driven out of Egypt by the Theban princes about 1600 B. C. With the expulsion of the Shepherd kings began the reigns of those great Theban kings who built the magnificent temples and palaces at Thebes. The nineteenth dynasty began with Rameses I. Seti I, the successor of this Rameses, began a war against the Hittites, which was continued under his successor and grandson, the great Rameses II, or Sesostris. Until recently it was believed that Rameses II was the Pharaoh who had oppressed the Hebrews, and that the Exodus occurred under his successor, Menephtah. Under the later kings of the nineteenth dynasty, the Egyptian empire began to decay. The twentieth dynasty began with Rameses III, a strong king, who was followed by a succession of weak rulers, dependent for the most part on their priests. A priest dynasty, the twenty-first, came to the throne with Herhor. He attempted to restore Egyptian rule in the East and conquered Jerusalem. After his death Egypt was torn by civil war, and eventually the Ethiopians conquered it. In 525 B. C. Cambyses, king of Persia, overran Egypt and made it a Persian province. After the Persian defeat at Marathon, the Egyptians arose and recovered their independence for a short time, but were again subdued; and in spite of two other revolts, Egypt remained a Persian province until Persia itself was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 B. C. Egypt now became a Greek state, and the Egyptians were treated as an inferior race. Alexandria was founded as the new Greek capital. On Alexander's death, his general, Ptolemy, took possession of the throne and became the first of a Greek dynasty that for three hundred years made Egypt one of the chief kingdoms of the world. The Ptolemies were patrons of letters and art, and Theocritus, Callimachus and Euclid flourished under their rule. But while the Alexandrian Greeks managed to keep down the native Egyptians, they were themselves coming under Roman influence. The later Ptolemies were obliged to ask the help of Rome in internal and external troubles, and Cleopatra maintained her power only through her personal influence with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. On the defeat of Antony by Augustus in 30 B. C., Egypt became a province of Rome. It was still a Greek state, however, and Alexandria was the chief seat of Greek learning and science. Gradually the old Greek and Egyptian religions gave place to Christianity, and this is perhaps the most important event in Egypt during the Roman rule. On the division of the Roman Empire, in the time of Theodosius, into the Western and Eastern empires, Egypt became a province of the latter and sank deeper and deeper into barbarism and weakness. It was conquered in 640 A. D. by the Saracens, under Caliph Omar. Of the Saracen rulers who made Cairo practically the center of Mohammedan influence, the greatest was Saladin. The last Saracen dynasty was overthrown by the Mamelukes in 1250, and the Mamelukes in their turn were conquered by the Turks in 1517. They made repeated attempts to cast off the Turkish yoke, and they had virtually done so by the end of the eighteenth century, when Napoleon conquered Egypt. The French held it till 1801, when they were driven out by the Turks, with the aid of the British. On the expulsion of the French, a Turkish force took possession of the country, and Mehemet Ali was made pasha. He was a man of great ability, administered the country vigorously and greatly extended the Egyptian territories. At length he rebelled against the porte, and, after gaining a decisive victory over the Ottoman troops in Syria, was acknowledged by the sultan as viceroy of Egypt, with the right of succession in his family. Mehemet Ali died in 1849 and was succeeded by his grandson Abbas Pasha, who in his turn was succeeded by his uncle Said Pasha, the son of Mehemet. Under the rule of Said Pasha railways were opened and the cutting of the Suez Canal was begun. After Said's death, Ismail Pasha, a grandson of Mehemet Ali, obtained the government (1863). His administration was vigorous, but exceedingly extravagant, and brought the finances of the country into great disorder. In 1866 he received permission from the sultan to adopt the title of khedive. In 1879 he was forced to abdicate under pressure of the British and French governments and was replaced by his son, Tewfik. The so-called national party revolted in 1882 and forced the khedive to flee, but on July 11 a British fleet bombarded Alexandria and restored him. From this time on, although the khedive remained the nominal head of the government, Egypt became practically the protectorate of Great Britain. A rebellion in the Sudan, under the leadership of the Mahdi, now gave the government trouble. (See Mahdi.) Troops were sent under General Gordon to protect the British interests, but the Mahdi's forces were strong enough to shut General Gordon up in Khartum. For nearly a year he held the town, but he was killed (January 18, 1885) before the relief expedition under Wolsely could reach him. When the expedition withdrew, the Sudan was left in a state of anarchy. In 1896 the Mahdi again threatened Egypt, and the British government again took steps to suppress him. Sir Herbert Kitchener was made commander in chief of the Egyptian army, and in 1898 he won a final victory, which once more brought the Sudan under the rule of the governments. In 1892 Tewfik was succeeded by his son, Abbas Hilmi, an able ruler. Population in 1897, 9,734,405; in 1910, 11,189,978.