Introduction:

Egypt covers an area of approximately 1,001,450 sq. km (386,662 sq. mi) in northeastern Africa, its northern coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, its eastern coastline along the Red Sea and touching the State of Israel in the Sinai. Libya shares its western border, Sudan its southern border. 

Egypt is overwhelmingly a desert country bisected by the River Nile. Over 90% of the land area is formed by a convergence of deserts -- the Libyan Desert to the west, the Sahara and Nubian Deserts to the south and the Arabian Desert to the east. There are oases scattered across this wasteland and a swathe of land along the Suez Canal which is cultivated, but it is mainly the land fed by the River Nile -- the Nile valley and the Nile Delta -- that is both habitable and arable. 

The Sinai Peninsula is formed of sand desert and spectacular mountains rising as high as 2,637m (8,652ft) above Red Sea level.