Note 334 — Chapter IV

The authorities differ as to the extent of the cultivable and the cultivated soil of Egypt. Lippincott's, or rather Thomas and Baldwin's, Gazetteer—a work of careful research—estimates "the whole area comprised in the valley [below the first cataract] and delta," at 11,000 square miles. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, article "Egypt," says: "Egypt has a superficies of about 9,582 square geographical miles of soil, which the Nile either does or can water and fertilize. This computation includes the river and lakes as well as sundry tracts which can be inundated, and the whole space either cultivated or fit for cultivation is no more than about 5,626 square miles." By geographical mile is here meant, I suppose, the nautical mile of sixty to an equatorial degree, or about 2,025 yards. The whole area, then, by this estimate, is 12,682 square statute or English miles, that of the space "cultivated or fit for cultivation," 7,447. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, article "Ægyptus," gives 2,255 square miles as the area of the valley between Syene and the bifurcation of the Nile, exclusive of the Fayoom, which is estimated at 340. The area of the Delta is stated at 1,976 square miles between the main branches of the river, and, including the irrigated lands east and west of those branches, at 4,500 square miles. This latter work does not inform us whether these are statute or nautical miles, but nautical miles must be intended.

Other writers give estimates differing considerably from those just cited. The latest computations I have seen are those in the first volume of Kremer's Ægypten, 1863. This author (pp. 6, 7) assigns to the Delta an area of 200 square German geographical miles (fifteen to the degree); to all Lower Egypt, including, of course, the Delta, 400 such miles. These numbers are equal, respectively, to 4,239 and 8,478 square statute miles, and the great lagoons are embraced in the areas computed. Upper Egypt (above Cairo) is said (p. 11) to contain 4,000,000 feddan of culturfläche, or cultivable land. The feddan is stated (p. 37) to contain 7,333 square piks, the pik being 75 centimètres, and it therefore corresponds almost exactly to the English acre. Hence, according to Kremer, the cultivable soil of Upper Egypt is 6,250 square statute miles, or twice as much as the whole area of the valley between Syene and the bifurcation of the Nile, according to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. I suspect that 4,000,000 feddan is erroneously given as the cultivable area of Upper Egypt alone, when in fact it should be taken for the arable surface of both Lower and Upper Egypt; for from the statistical tables in the same volume, it appears that 3,317,125 feddan, or 5,253 square statute miles, were cultivated, in both geographical divisions, in the year referred to in the tables, the date of which is not stated.

The area which the Nile would now cover at high water, if left to itself, is greater than in ancient times, because the bed of the river has been elevated, and consequently the lateral spread of the inundation increased. See SMITH'S Dictionary of Geography, article "Ægyptus." But the industry of the Egyptians in the days of the Pharaohs and the Ptolomies carried the Nile-water to large provinces which have now been long abandoned and have relapsed into the condition of a desert. "Anciently," observes the writer of the article "Egypt" in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, "2,735 square miles more [about 3,700 square statute miles] may have been cultivated. In the best days of Egypt, probably all the land was cultivated that could be made available for agricultural purposes, and hence we may estimate the ancient arable area of that country at not less than 11,000 square statute miles, or fully double its present extent."