EGYPT, ept: country in n.c. Africa, extending from the Mediterranean to the first cataract of the Nile, at Assouan, from lat. 24° 6' to 31° 36' n. The name is derived from the Greek Aigyptos, either meaning the Coptic land, or as some maintain, derived from IIakaptah, the city of Ptah,' i.e., Memphis (according to Maspéro). In Hiero. glyphs and Coptic, it was called Kemi (Black Land), from the color of the soil; and by the Hebrews Mazor or Mizraim,

modified by the Assyrians into Musr, and by the Persians into Mudraya. The country may be described as the bed of the Nile, the cultivated territory extending only to the limits of the inundation. This river runs from the cata racts of Assouan, in a northerly direction, to Denderah, where there is one great bend to the w.; and a few m. n. of

Cairo (lat. 30° 15' n.), the river divides into two main streams,
forming the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The other
five mouths, which existed in antiquity, have silted up; the
alluvial district inclosed by these mouths, and supposed by
the ancients to have been gained from the sea, formed the
ancient Delta. The basin of the Nile is formed by the
ranges of the Arabian hills on the e., and the Libyan on
the w. side. The rate of deposit of mud is supposed to be
about 4 inches in a century. The e. chain of mountains rises
to about 1,000 ft. above the level of the sea.
The great
physical peculiarity of Egypt is the absence of rain, the
land being irrigated only by the annual overflow of the
Nile. The climate is remarkably mild and sound, especial-
ly s. of the Delta; and in the desert, from Cairo to Alexan-
dria, the air contains more moisture than to the south. From
the middle of Aug. to Dec, w. winds prevail; e. winds
from Dec. to Mar.; after that, unhealthful s. winds or
Khamsin till June; and from June to Aug. the n. or Etesian
winds Earthquakes are occasionally felt; and the temper-
ature varies from 84° F. to 32. The most remarkable
phenomenon is, however, the regular increase of the Nile,
fed by the fall of the tropical rains, which commence in 11°
n. lat., in the spring; and falling first into the White, and
then Blue Nile, reach Egypt in the middle, and the Delta
in the end of June. In the middle of July, the red water
appears, and the rise may be dated from that time; it attains
its maximum at the end of Sep, and begins to decline vis-
ibly in the middle of Oct., and subsides to its minimum in
April. At the end of Nov., the irrigated land has dried,
and is sown, and is covered with green crops, which last
till the end of February. In March is the harvest. The
state of the Nile, in fact, marks the season more accurately
than the variation of temperature. E. is not remarkably
healthy, as, in addition to the visitations of plague and
cholera, ophthalmia, diarrhoea, dysentery, and boils often
prevail, and European, and even Nigritic races cannot be
acclimatized.

Geology-E. is separated from Nubia by a low hilly region about 50 m. broad from n. to s., composed of granitic rocks The same crystalline rocks extend up the shore of the Red Sea to near the opening of the Gulf of Suez, stretching inland for fully 30 m. The scenery in this dis trict is wild and rude, and the course of the Nile is fre quently interrupted by cliffs and broken masses of granite, forining magnificent cataracts. The granitic region termi nates at Assouan, the ancient Syene. From the rocks here were obtained the materials for the collossal and monolithic monuments of Egypt. The valley of Upper Egypt is bounded by two ranges of hills running northward-the Arabian range on the right, the Libyan on the left of the river, both alike composed of cretaceous strata, the predominant rock being sandstone. This is a durable and easily worked stone, and was consequently extensively used in the erection of ancient temples. The city of Thebes was built of it. The cretaceous sandstone extends from the granitic rocks forming the first cataract at Assouan for

about 85 m. to Esné, where it is covered by a limestone belonging to the upper chalk series. This continues on both sides of the valley for about 130 m., when it is covered by a tertiary mummulite limestone, which forms the farther prolongation northward of both ranges of hills. Because of the easy disintegration of these beds, the scenery in the limestone districts is tame and monotonous; frequent tablelands occur, on one of which are built the three pyramids of Gizeh, the material employed being the predominant limestone.

Over a large extent of E., these rocks are covered with moving desert sands, and in the flat lands bordering the Nile, with the alluvium brought down by its waters, and which has formed the Delta at its mouth. This alluvium consists of an argillaceous earth or loam, more or less mixed with sand, and a quartzose sand probably derived from the adjacent deserts by violent winds. It is remarkable that this sedimentary deposit has no traces of stratification, and also that within short distances, great vari eties are observed in what are apparently synchronous deposits. In late years more careful observation of the Nile deposits, with the striking conclusions that have been de duced therefrom, have drawn increased attention of geologists to these deposits. See MEMPHIS.

Natural History and Productions -The fertile valley of the Nile and the desert regions which inclose it, are very different, not only in their botany, but in their zoology. Onc of the most notable of Egyptian quadrupeds is the hippopotamus, which formerly reached the Delta, but is now seen only in the more southern parts of the Nile. The giraffe is occasionally found within the southern borders of Egypt. The jackal and hyæna are common; also the ichneumon (q.v.), so much celebrated among the ancients, and the jerboa. The one-humped camel was introduced by the Ptolemies for the transit of the Indian trade. The other usual domestic quadrupeds have existed from most ancient times. Of domestic birds, water-fowl were anciently most numerous; the gallinaceous poultry now common not being probably of older date than the Persian invasion. Pigeons have always been abundant. The Egyptian vulture (q.v.) is a common and notable bird, as is also the ibis (q.v.), held sacred by the ancient Egyptians, and of which many fables have been related. The ostrich sometimes occurs in the desert. Of reptiles, the most famous is the crocodile of the Nile; monitors (q.v.) are also abundant, saurian reptiles of considerable size. Smaller lizards abound. The trionyx, or soft tortoise, is plentiful in the Nile. Serpents are numerous; among the most venomous and dreaded of which are the asp (q.v.) or haje, and the cerastes (qv). E. abounds in fish, the most remarkable being the binny (see BARBEL), the Latus (one of the perch family), the Bayad or Silurus, the Chromis Nilotica and the Mormyrus oxyrhynchus. The sacred beetle (Scarabæus sacer) is one of the most remarkable insects. Locusts are a dreaded pest. E. is still notable also for the abundance of the other creatures mentioned by Moses as its plagues.

Many of the European trees and plants are found in E.; the date-palm, the doom-palm the sycamore, acacias, tamarisks, etc., are among its more peculiar botanical productions; also the papyrus (p-apu), which anciently supplied material for paper, and the lotus (shnin) or water-lily of the Nile. The extensive culture of papyrus has been, in modern times, replaced by that of the sugarcane, cotton, indigo, and tobacco; and the papyrus has almost disappeared. Gourds and melons have always abounded. To the wheat and barley of antiquity have been added maize and durra. E. is very deficient in timber trees; the Pharaohs obtained cedar from Lebanon and ebony from Ethiopia. The rocks of E. afforded the stones used in its edifices and sculptures; granite, syenite, basalt (at Assouan), breccia (in the Cosseir Rood), porphyry (from the quarries of Gebel Doshan, opened in the reign of the emperor Claudius), sandstone, and limestone. Alabaster (found at Tel-el-amarna) has been used from the earliest periods to the present day. Eme. ralds are produced by the mines of Gebel Zabara; salt, natron, and since 1850-sulphur are among mineral pro ductions of Egypt.

Divisions.-The country was anciently divided into 44 nomes-22 in Upper, and 22 in Lower Egypt. Each nome or dept. had a seperate local municipal government of a nomarch or lieut.gov., ha, besides governors of the cities, of the temples, scribes, judges, and other functionaries. Their limits were measured and defined by landmarks. This division, as old as the 4th dynasty, varied in number at different times. Under Sethos I. or Sesostris, there were 36 nomes-10 in the Thebaid, 10 in the Delta, and 16 in Middle Egypt. At the time of the geographer Ptolemy, there were 47-the Antinoits having been added. The country beyond the cataracts to Hierosycaminos was named at the Roman period Dodekaskoinos. In A.D. 400 Egypt was divided into Augusta Prima and Secunda on the e., and Egyptiaca on the w., the Heptanomis as far as Oxyrhynchus was named Arabia, then Thebais Proxima as far as Panopolis, and Thebais Supra to Phile. Under the Arabs, E. has been divided into Masr-el-Bahri or the Delta; the Faioum, El Bostani, or Middle Egypt; and Es Said or Upper Egypt, Nubia, Darfur, and extensive territories on the Upper Nile, extending to the Victoria Nyanza in central Africa, were 1876-82, subject to the khedive. See SUDAN. For a description of the most remarkable antiquities of E.. see ABOUSAMBUL: ALEXANDRIA: EDFOU: MEMPHIS: THEBES: also NILOMETER: OBELISK: PYRAMID: etc.

The population of the country must have been large at the earliest period, as 100,000 men were employed in the construction of the Great Pyramid alone during the 4th dy. nasty. It has been placed at 7,000,000 under the Pharaohs, distributed in 1,800 towns, which had increased to 2,000 under Amasis, B.C. 525, and upward of 3,000 under the Ptolemies. In the reign of Nero, it amounted to 7,800,000. The pop. (1844) was 2 500,000; (1859) 5,125,000; and (1879) including Nubia, Darfur, and other dependencies, nearly 17,000,000, of whom 5,200,000 inhabited Egypt proper

The great bulk of the inhabitants consist of native Mohammedans; the Copts (q.v.) are estimated at 150,000, and the rest are composed of Bedouin Arabs, Negroes, Abyssinians, Turks, Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Western Europeans. The original population appears, both from the language and from the physical conformation of the mummies, to have been of Asiatic origin, afterward blended with Ethiopian by subsequent irruptions and conquests; but there appears to have been an aboriginal race at au early period, of copper color, fair proportioned, though with rather thin legs, large feet, rather high cheek-bones, and large lips. According to Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plato, the system of castes prevailed in Egypt. The first of these authors says there were seven castes-of priests, warriors, cowherds, swineherds, innkeepers, interpreters, and pilots. Diodorus makes only five-priests, soldiers, cultivators, shepherds, and artisans; and Plato the same. The evidence of the monuments, however, shows that these were rather conditions of society than castes, as the different orders not only intermarried, but even, as in the case of priests and soldiers, held both employments. As in all bureaucracies, the sons often obtained the same employments as their fathers.

Religion. The Egyptian religion was a philosophical pantheism, the various attributes of the Deity being

divided among the different gods of the Pantheon. Unlike the Greek, where a god was honored in a separate temple, each Egyptian divinity was accompanied by a put or company' of companiongods. The principal nomes and cities had each a family group of gods, consisting of a parent deity, a wife and sister, and a son. Thus Ptah or Hephæstus, the eponymous and principal god of Memphis, formed a triad with the goddess Sekhet (fig. 1), or Bast, and Imhotep: at Thebes the triad was Amen-ra, Mut, and Khons; and at Apollinopolis Magna, Harbahud (Horus) Hathoe, and Har-pakhrut (Harpocrates). These triads were often accompanied by inferior deities; and personifications of the elements, passions, and senses, and feelings were introduced. The worship of some triads, however, became universal-that of Osiris. Isis, and Horus being found all over Egypt at the earliest period. The gods, indeed, are stated by the Greeks to have been divided into three or more orders. The first contained seven (or nine); the second, twelve; the third, an un known number. The gods of the first order were Ptah, Ra, Shu, Seb, Osiris, Set or Typhon, and Horus, according to the Memphite; and Amen, Mentu, Atum, Shu, Seb. Osiris, Set, Horus, and Sebak, according to the Theban version. Great uncertainty prevails about the gods of the second nd third order, and still greater difficulty about the gene

Sekhet