These images show the dramatic urban growth within the Nile River delta and the expansion of agriculture into adjoining desert areas.

Cairo, shown as the large blue-gray expanse in the southeast, increased in population from 1.5 million to 6 million between 1947 and 1986. It now has a population density of more than 26,000 people per square kilometer, or more than 11 million people. Urban expansion is also noticeable in the other parts of the delta, as indicated by the increase in the blue-gray areas in the 1987 image.

The area of vegetation just outside the delta in the upper-left area of each zoom-out image is new agricultural development, with some of the crops irrigated through center-pivot irrigation.

References

Theroux, Peter, and Reza, 1993, Cairo-- clamorous heart of Egypt: National Geographic Magazine, vol. 183, no. 4, April, p. 38-68.

Fox, Robert W., and Carroll, Allen, 1984, The urban explosion: National Geographic Magazine, vol. 166, no. 2, August, pp. 179-185.

Abercrombie, Thomas J., 1977, Egypt: change comes to a changeless land: National Geographic Magazine, vol. 151, no. 3, March, p. 312-343.

Ellis, William, S., and Parks, Winfield, 1972, Cairo, Troubled Capital of the Arab World: National Geographic Magazine, vol. 141, no. 5, May, p. 639-667.

U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1994, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1994, (114th Edition): Washington, D. C., 1011 p.

Helen Chapin Metz (ed.), 1991, Egypt: a country study: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., 425 p.

Satellite images

LM1190039007313090 (Landsat 1 MSS, 10 May 1973)

LM5177039008719990 (Landsat 5 MSS, 18 July 1987)

Map

Defense Mapping Agency, 1981, Operational Navigation Chart H-5: edition 7-GSGS, scale 1:1,000,000.

Photographs

Thanks to Cynthia Waszak for the photographs of Cairo.

How to cite this article

Campbell, Robert Wellman, ed. 1997. "Nile River Delta, Egypt: 1973, 1987." Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change. U.S. Geological Survey. http://earthshots.usgs.gov. This article was released 14 February 1997.