NASA Photo ID: STS056-152-165      File Name: 10073225.jpg
  Film Type: 4x5                     Date Taken: 04/17/93
  Title: STS-56 Earth observation of the northeastern Nile Delta
  Description:
  STS-56 Earth observation of the northeastern Nile Delta was photographed
  from  the Earth-orbiting Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103.  The branch
  of the  Nile featured in the frame is Daimietta. The Suez Canal marks the
  boundary of  the Nile Delta agriculture and the Sinai Desert to the right.
  Lake Masada,  the dark waterlogged area to the west (left) of Port Said is
  becoming more  saline as the Aswan Dam has reduced sediment downstream. 
  This sediment  reduction, according to NASA scientists studying the STS-56
  photography, has  resulted in increased coastal erosion and the intrusion
  of a salt-water lens  to the ground water, particularly in the northeastern
  portions of the delta.   Center pivot irrigation fields are located along
  either side of the Ramses  Canal, which connects the Daimietta Nile with
  Great Bitter Lake.  This canal  has been re-dug three or four times in the
  past 3,000 years.  Historians note  that the canal's most famous use was as
  the departure point of the fleet of  Pharaoh Necho.  The fleet
  circumnavigated Africa clockwise from the head of  the Red Sea to the
  Mediterranean coast of the Nile (probably the Rosetta  Nile) in a
  three-year voyage circa 660 BC.      
  
  Subject terms:
  AGRICULTURE                             
  CANALS                                  
  DELTAS                                  
  DESERTS                                 
  DISCOVERY (ORBITER)                     
  EARTH OBSERVATIONS (FROM SPACE)         
  EGYPT                                   
  LAKES                                   
  MEDITERRANEAN SEA                       
  RIVERS                                  
  STS-56                                  
  

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