Why Almost Everyone in Egypt Lives Along One River

Egypt is almost one million square kilometers in size. Yet roughly 96% of its population lives on only about 6% of its territory. The obvious explanation is the Nile. But that raises a more interesting question: after decades of dams, highways, new cities, pumping stations and enormous desert projects, why does modern Egypt still follow almost the same population pattern? This is the geography that built Egypt - and why escaping it is much harder than it looks. Strange Atlas explores the geographic forces that shape where people live, how countries develop, and why the map looks the way it does. 00:00 The Line 03:01 The River That Built a Country 06:34 Build a City in the Desert 10:16 Trying to Build a Second Delta 14:23 Next: The Netherlands SOURCES & CREDITS Population data: WorldPop (www.worldpop.org) - School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton; Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville; Département de Géographie, Université de Namur; and CIESIN, Columbia University. Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project (2018), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. https://dx.doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645 Visual sources: "جزء من الترع الفرعية بمشروع توشكي الخير.jpg" - Mustafaalacadory97 - CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "فيلات في القاهرة الجديدة 1.jpg" - medea_material - CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Power plant, Aswan High Dam, Aswan, Egypt.jpg" - Vyacheslav Argenberg - CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Egypt, Cairo, Muizz Market Street, Islamic Cairo.jpg" - Vyacheslav Argenberg - CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Cairo, Nile River, Residential buildings, Egypt.jpg" - Vyacheslav Argenberg - CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Flickr - Daveness 98 - Heading south on Al Quala.jpg" - David Evers - CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Kom Ombo station (2347087005).jpg" - Francisco Anzola - CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Hurghada Hotels R01.jpg" - Marc Ryckaert (MJJR) - CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Visual materials were selectively cropped, scaled and/or incorporated into animated compositions. Music: Deep Space, Running Waters, Over Time, Atlantis, Drifting and Transcend by Jason Shaw / Audionautix https://audionautix.com/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music edits include excerpts, crossfades, EQ and volume/ducking automation.