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The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the River Nile spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas – from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 230 km of Mediterranean coastline – and it is a rich agricultural region, both densely populated and exceedingly fertile.
The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo and covers the last 160 km or so of the Nile's 5600-km course. In pharaonic times, this area was Lower Egypt. In ancient times, the Nile split into seven branches as it entered the Delta: the Pelusiac, the Tanitic, the Mendesian, the Phatnitic, the Sebennytic, the Bolbitine, and the Canopic. Today, silting and changing relief means that there are only two: the Rosetta arm to the west, and the Damietta arm to the east.