Note 338 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Wilkinson has shown that the cultivable soil of Egypt has not been diminished by encroachment of the desert sands, or otherwise, but that, on the contrary, it must have been increased since the age of the Pharaohs. The Gotha Almanac for 1862 states the population of Egypt in 1859 at 5,125,000 souls; but this must be a great exaggeration, even supposing the estimate to include the inhabitants of Nubia, and of much other territory not geographically belonging to Egypt. In general, the population of that country has been estimated at something more than three millions, or about six hundred to the square mile; but with a better government and better social institutions, the soil would sustain a much greater number, and in fact it is believed that in ancient times its inhabitants were twice, perhaps even thrice, as numerous as at present.
Wilkinson (Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, p. 10) observes that the total population, which two hundred years ago was estimated at 4,000,000, amounted till lately only to about 1,800,000 souls, having been reduced since 1800 from 2,500,000 to that number.