What is the Nile Delta and why is it important?
The Nile Delta is the opening of the Nile, the longest river in the world, as it reaches the Mediterranean Sea. Since the Nile brings both water and rich sediment, the Delta has been a perfect area to grow food for thousands and thousands of years.
What does delta mean in the Nile river?
River in Egypt. Deltas are wetlands that form as rivers empty their water and sediment into another body of water. The Nile delta, created as it empties into the Mediterranean Sea, has a classic delta formation. The upper delta, influenced by the Nile’s flow, is the most inland portion of the landform.
What was the delta region of the Nile?
The Nile delta is situated in northern Egypt, where the river Nile reaches the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in the world. It originates near the equator and flows nearly 7000 km northward. The Delta begins approximately 20 km north of Cairo and extends North for about 150 km.
What is the difference between the Nile river and the Nile Delta?
One big difference between the two is that while the Nile delta is shrinking (the Mediterranean Sea is eating away more sediment than the river can supply), the Mississippi delta is growing. Look closely at lobe 1, where the Atchafalaya River runs into the Gulf of Mexico.
How did the Nile delta help Egypt?
The Nile Delta area known in antiquity was a vital element of the development of ancient Egyptian society and played an intrinsic part in their religion, culture and day-to-day sustenance. In addition to providing fertile farmland, the Delta offered the ancient Egyptians many other valuable resources.
Is the Nile delta a swamp?
Since the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the riverine floodplains and delta are no longer subject to annual flooding, and Cyperus papyrus swamps that used to exist in the wettest areas have largely disappeared. The remaining marshland is associated with lakes and lagoons along the seaward face of the delta.
Why is the Nile river delta so important to Egypt?
Why is the Mississippi delta called a delta?
The shifting river delta at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf Coast lies some 300 miles south of this area, and is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta. Rather, the Mississippi Delta is part of an alluvial plain, created by regular flooding of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers over thousands of years.
Why is the Nile River Delta so important to Egypt?
What is bad about the Nile Delta?
But what brings life to the Nile Delta also brings its curse: the water-borne parasite that causes bilharzia, a disease that infects 1 Egyptian in 12 and which has proven all but impossible to escape in villages like Bataina.
Why is the Mississippi Delta called a Delta?