NASA Photo ID: STS056-152-165     File Name: 10073225.jpg

Film Type: 4x5 CN                 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.