The total population of Egypt ascending in 1927 to 14,217,864 residents, Distributed in 35,159 sq km. of cultivated land, would give an average density of 404 residents per sq. km. To this is matched by the totality of the Libyan and Arabian deserts representing more than 9 / 10 of the total extension for which the density would be reduced to less than one resident for every 2 sq km. But even within the limits of the cultivated area it is very irregularly distributed; excluding the major governorates of the Delta, it would go to a maximum of 686 residents per sq. km. in the province of el-Menūfīyah, to a minimum of 503 in that of esh-Sharqīyah, both in Lower Egypt. In Upper Egypt the extreme values remain significantly the same, that is to say of 614 residents for the province of Girǵā (157 sq. km.) and 274 for that of Aswan (940 sq. km.). The Egyptian population is, as mentioned, an essentially agricultural and only 1 / 3 approximately lives in the cities, while the majority live in modest villages and hamlets. The 1927 census gave Egypt only 20 municipalities with more than 20,000 residents, of which 3 municipalities exceeded 100,000 and 6 were between 50 and 100,000 residents. Cairo, the capital of the state with over one million residents, is a great metropolis, the largest in the entire Muslim world, which, while retaining its original character as an Arab city with conspicuous monuments of high artistic value, has been enriched in the last decades of new and grandiose European-style neighborhoods. The same can be said of Alexandria which has 573,000 residents. and that especially after the British occupation it has almost totally lost its Arab character and has completely transformed itself into a city of a European type. Port Said with its 105,000 residents, which arose following the opening of the Suez Canal, it owes its rapid development as a cosmopolitan city to the traffic of the canal and the movement of the port.
According to Watchtutorials, cities between 50 and 100,000 residents only two, Medīnet el-Fayyūm and Asyūṭ, are in Upper Egypt and the other 4 (Damanhūr, el-Manṣūrah, Tanṭā and ez-Zaqāzīq) all in the Delta region. Thus those with a population of less than 50,000 are six in Lower Egypt (Benhā, Shibīn el-Kōm, Damietta, el-Maḥallah el-Kubra, Rosetta and Suez) and four (Beni Suēf, Qinā, el-Minyā and Sōhāǵ) in the Upper Egypt. Medīnet el-Fayyūm, the capital of the vast depression, ancient Lake Moeris, which the waters of the Baḥr Yūsuf copiously irrigate and convert into fertile fields, is a city of over 50,000 residents. (52,863), of which many Greeks, provincial capital and considerable center of economic activity. Asyūṭ at 375 km. upstream of Cairo (57. 000 residents) Is the most considerable center of Upper Egypt, the provincial capital and an important market, at the point where the roads to the great oases of the Libyan Desert converge, and frequented by visitors for the relics of the past that are preserved there. Of the cities of the Delta, Tantā with its 90,000 residents it is the fourth largest city in Egypt by population, the capital of the province of el-Gharbīyah, a beautiful and large city, with grandiose buildings and a conspicuous cultural and religious center. El-Mansūrah (residents 63,700), ez-Zaqāzīq (pop. 52,800) and Damanhūr (51,700) are large agricultural and cotton centers of a mixed Arab-European type. The same can be said of the smaller towns: el-Maḥallah el-Kubra (45,600 residents) capital of the province of el-Qalyūbīyah, Benhā (28,400), Shibīn el-Kōm (27,400) capital of the province of el-Menūfīya. Instead the coastal ports of Damietta, capital of an autonomous governorate (34,900), and of Rosetta (23,000) are exclusively Arab centers, inhabited by fishermen and traders. Suez, the ancient miserable port of the Red Sea, which gave its name to the isthmus and the canal that crosses it, owes its rapid increase to the construction of the canal, although it offers nothing of special interest. Other cities of Upper Egypt: Benī Suēf (39,600 residents) On the left bank of the Nile at 124 km. upstream of Cairo, the capital of the province of the same name; el-Minyā (44,300 residents) flourishing city; Sōhāǵ (25,300 residents) Capital of the province of Girǵā, a prosperous and civilized town; Qinā at 608 km. upstream of Cairo (pop. 27,600) renowned for its pottery factories; and furthest south of all, 886 km. from Cairo, Aswan, ancient Siene.
