Egypt, Africa’s most north-easterly country, is one of the hottest, driest and sunniest on Earth – its desert climate inhabitable only because of the Nile River, which brings water and allows irrigation for farming.
However, Egypt’s size means there is a big contrast between the climates of the far north and far south. This is epitomised by the two cities at either end of the country: Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, and Aswan, at the head of Lake Nasser, towards Sudan.
Alexandria has a typically pleasant Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and warm winters, during which rain occasionally falls. Even so, the total annual rainfall for the city is only 235mm (less than 10 inc), which is still within the definition of “desert”. In summer, the hot wind known as the khamsin blows northwards from the country’s interior, often bringing dust and sand.
Aswan, more than 620 miles (1,000km) to the south, gets a maximum of 10mm (less than half an inch) of rain a year; and sometimes none at all. Temperatures here are hot in winter, though at nights they fall into the low teens; and very hot – sometimes dangerously so – in summer, when mid-40C spells are not uncommon.
The capital, Cairo, and the tourist sites at Luxor, are best visited from November to March, when the weather is usually dry, sunny and warm.
