egypt is one of the first and oldest
civilizations in the world
although it has come in dozens of
different forms the banks of the nile
river
have hosted powerful civilizations for
nearly 10
000 years today the arab republic of
egypt with its more than 100 million
strong population
is the 14th most populous country in the
world
and is easily one of the most
influential nations in the entire region
but most of that population is still
generally limited to the banks of this
one river
the river that made egyptian
civilizations so successful
and yet composed modern egypt was a big
problem
this video is sponsored by squarespace
new sponsor also no this isn't me
claiming some sort of throne of egypt i
do not want to claim responsibility for
a country of 100 million people
so first let's set our bearings as i'm
sure you already know
this is egypt a transcontinental country
mostly in north africa and with the
sinai peninsula in western asia
politically egypt is bordered to the
west by libya to the south by sudan
and to the northeast by israel and
palestine no we are not going into that
debate here i made this video to talk
about egypt and i'm going to talk about
egypt
egypt is also bordered by the
mediterranean sea to the north
and the red sea to the east but that's
just what surrounds egypt's national
borders
in reality most of the country's land
area is essentially a buffer zone
around its core looking geographically
egypt's historical success and modern
challenges
start to become clear egypt's core is of
course
the ever so fertile nile river valley
which is of course key for starting a
civilization as rivers provide fresh
water for humans and crops
and a method of easy transport within
the kingdom and to the outside world if
it goes out to an ocean
don't worry i'll get to the stuff you
don't right now i'm just catching
everyone up
to better understand this country
egypt's geography
can be broken up into four major pieces
the western desert the nile valley the
eastern desert
and the sinai peninsula though almost
the entirety of the egyptian population
lives along the nile river valley
one of ancient egypt's greatest assets
would have been the desert surrounding
it
precisely because of their inhospitable
environments
egypt had a large desert to the west and
a sea to the east of some large desert
mountains that were also to the east
and to the north was the mediterranean
sea providing both easy access to
and easy protection from its northern
neighbors
ancient egypt was only successfully
invaded a select
few times from outside powers through
one of two passageways and even into the
colonial era
egypt was almost always invaded from the
northeast
in fact while egypt has been invaded by
the nubians to the south
and whole crapton of empires to the
northeast many times
particularly in around the 15th century
bc it was
egypt invading its neighbors through
these corridors
as various egyptian dynasties and
kingdoms from the new kingdom to the
mamluk sultanate
sought to expand their influence in this
direction
between the nile delta and the levants
is the sinai peninsula
which despite its hostile climate and
lack of oases and its mostly mountainous
terrain
is only around 200 kilometers long along
the northern coast
meaning an army could travel through it
in only about a week
this essentially provided an effective
land corridor in and out of egypt
for the civilizations that arose in
western asia both for diplomats
and for invading armies with a series of
fortresses built here during the new
kingdom
to deter foreign armies not that that
was always successful
now of course there's quite a big
drawback to being surrounded by empty
desert wasteland no one can settle
you're surrounded by empty desert
wasteland no one can settle
modern egypt's geographic challenges
while somewhat similar
are still very different from the
concerns of ancient and medieval egypt
egypt is located at an important
crossroads in the modern world
being the world's largest arab nation
partially in africa and in asia
and on the coast of the mediterranean
and red seas
one of modern egypt's greatest assets
and where
egypt's central position in the region
becomes clear is of course
the suez canal one of the two shortcuts
between the atlantic and the pacific and
indian oceans
as one of the two canals connecting
these oceans and the only one that some
of the world's largest ships can fit
through
the suez canal authority made a reported
5.61 billion us dollars in 2020
this shortcut however has also become a
choke point for international trade
as seen in the aftermath of the six day
war and just earlier this year when
when up when oh come on seriously here
too
egypt's population has recently
surpassed 100 million
compared to around 20 million as
recently as the 1950s
despite this 95 percent of egypt's
population
still lives in the nile river valley
inhabiting only 7.7 percent of the
country's area
to put this into perspective imagine
spain times 2
plus another 10 million people and cram
most of them in an area the size of
czechia
or in american terms a place twice the
size of california
with a population three times that of
california but almost everyone lives in
an area smaller than south carolina as i
said in my how we traveled in the
ancient world video at least for those
of you who actually watched it
egypt doesn't just depend on the nile
egypt
is the nile its capital and largest city
cairo
although it didn't even exist in ancient
times is now one of the largest cities
in the world
with a metro area population of over 20
million
this all points to one of egypt's main
domestic concerns
overpopulation the country is growing at
a rate of 1.8 percent per year
which could strain the country and the
niles resources
now that the country has grown this
significantly and doesn't generally have
to worry about invasions
the deserts surrounding egypt's
heartland now pose egypt
with the big handicap the largest of
egypt's 27 governorates
is the new valley or el wadia gadid
governorate
with an area of 440 000 square
kilometers
around the size of morocco or california
yet with a population of 245 000
smaller than glendale arizona the
governorate gets its name
from the new valley project which aims
to irrigate the western desert
and create a sort of new nile valley the
new valley project is an ongoing project
first undertaken in 1997 which aimed to
irrigate the western desert
by pumping water from lake nassar itself
created from the construction of the as1
high dam in the 1960s
which regulates the once unpredictable
seasonal flooding of the nile
this project however has thus far not
been nearly as successful as hoped
envisioned by then president hosni
mubarak the project aimed to provide
ample arable land
with which to resettle up to 20 percent
of egypt's population
but as of yet only 21 000 hectares of
farmland
10 of the envision total and none of the
cities or major infrastructure
has been built with the project dubbed
by critics
as mubarak's pyramid this however
would not solve an existential threat to
egypt's lifeline
and a prime source of an already brewing
geopolitical conflict
with its southern neighbors while egypt
relies almost wholly on the course of
the nile river
it only truly controls the last part of
the river
with other countries controlling parts
of the nile further up river
3000 kilometers upriver ethiopia is
building the 4.5 billion dollar grand
ethiopian renaissance dam
on the blue nile to ethiopia this dam
would help give electricity to ethiopian
homes
and allow it to export this power to
neighboring countries
however to egypt this dam is seen as an
existential threat
the dam obviously would not drive the
river entirely but it could drastically
cut the water egypt receives from the
river
egypt argues that they are the historic
masters of the river
at least as according to treaties from
1929 and 1959
granting it in sudan 87 of the river's
flow
ethiopia however which wasn't present in
either of those treaties
argues that this project would not
affect egypt's water supply so severely
and that this is an imperative to
provide power for ethiopia's also
rapidly growing population
the real danger to egypt though lies in
how quickly the reservoir behind the dam
will be filled
as blocking the river's flow to fill it
too quickly could result in droughts
down river
the ethiopian government already under
pressure from citizens who have bought
government bonds for the dam's
construction
hopes to fill it within four years
whereas egypt argues for it to be filled
in 12 years
with 40 of its population living in the
nile delta region
this leaves much of the egyptian
heartland open both two external powers
with dominance over the mediterranean
and rising sea levels due to climate
change
in addition to pollution and potential
water shortages from upriver
rising sea levels wouldn't just inundate
the low-lying farmlands
but would also bring saltwater into the
delta egypt you guys gonna be okay
geopolitically egypt is a powerhouse in
africa
the arab world and the eastern
mediterranean
culturally militarily and economically
because they're in a sense not just in a
position where they can be
but where they have to be while they may
only control the area within their
borders
ultimately they must look out for
whatever happens further up denial
or to impede trade through the suez
canal or in the rest of the arab world
in africa and whoever is the most
powerful player in the eastern
mediterranean
and thus to strategically ally itself
with
in the ancient world egypt was given
some of the best geography an early
civilization could ask for
but now in the modern era egypt's
geography
might have turned out too good for its
own good
now i know the question you're all
asking just how did i look so stylish
this entire video
well obviously it's because i never go
outside
without an ultra fashionable squarespace
website
with a squarespace website you can rock
the world with your style
whether you're starting a blog creating
member-only areas for your audience
or just linking all your social media
pages to make a landing page
but in style with squarespace it's never
been quicker or easier to build the
website your business or project really
deserves
i actually made my website canopus.tv
long before squarespace ever reached
out to me and no joke it's actually been
really easy to work with i mean it's not
slap the keyboard and get a beautiful
website easy but it's still very easy to
use and get the hang of
prove to the world your ideas are truly
a force to be reckoned with
by stunning them with a squarespace
website if you want to stun the market
with your glamorous website
craft it to the look of your dreams on
squarespace.com
and when you're ready to pull the
trigger go to squarespace.comcanubis for
ten percent off your order with the code
your idea deserves a good website your
idea
is a squarespace idea okay literally
what does that even mean we're talking
about websites here not actual fashion
yeah that's a joke you ready yet
you