Nile River Delta

Zoom into the moving sands of Egypt that surround the fertile Nile River Delta. This area has been farmed intensively for at least 5,000 years, but population growth in recent decades has caused urban development to replace cultivated land. With Egypt’s population climbing from 45 million in the 1980s to more than 100 million today, the nation is losing about 2% of its arable land per decade to urbanization.

Also, let us know what you think of this new zoom format!

30.549049°, 31.265453°

Source imagery: NASA / Google Timelapse