ABSTRACT
Herodotus wrote that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile". Rudyard Kipling, in turn, described the Nile as "that little damp trickle of life". Both comments emphasize the role of a single river as the fundamental element in the existence of this ancient land. The Nile Valley is unique in its singular symbiosis of people and environment and in its remarkable history and contemporary development. Flanked by desert ramparts, kingdoms have flourished in the valley for millennia, with only occasional major disruptions. Egypt moved from power core to colonial possession to political leader of the Arab world, dropped to regional pariah status for several years after 1979, but regained a qualified political eminence in the 1990s. If climate change leads to higher sea levels, the lowlying area stands to be affected: in 2012, about a third of the country's people lived in the governorates along the delta coast from Alexandria to Port Said.
