ABSTRACT
The Quaternary sediments of Egypt have recently been subjected to intensive studies. They lie unconformably over the Pliocene or older sediments in the Nile Valley and the surrounding deserts. Of the two environments, the Nile trough possesses the more complete record of the Quaternary in Egypt where the sediments assume great thicknesses and are divisible into units which are unconformable with one another. In the deserts, however, which are the sites of intense erosion, die Quaternary sediments are thin and incomplete. The Quaternary sediments of the deserts of Egypt are varied and complex. The age of the Pleistocene stage boundaries, and particularly the transition from the Tertiary to the Quaternary, is uncertain. The classification proposed for the Egyptian Quaternary is based on the subdivision of die sediments into climato-stratigraphic units which were formed during several pluvial episodes separated by interpluvial episodes. The Quaternary chronology of the northern reaches rests solely on evidence obtained from ancient shorelines.
