drastically. The north, where soil salinization is extreme (see Figure 5.2), as
around the coastal lagoons of Lake Idku, Lake Burullus and Lake Manzala,
is less densely populated.
From the western and the eastern rims of the Nile delta human activities
were extended considerably into the adjacent desert areas in the twentieth
century. On the one hand, new areas were brought under cultivation with
the help of several land reclamation projects; on the other, new towns were
established there like Madinet es-Sadat, Gharb en-Nubariya and Borg el-Arab
el-Gedida in the west, and Madinet es-Salam, Al-Ubur, Esh-Sheruq, Heliopolis
el-Gedida, Er-Rihab, Badr, Madinet el-Ashir min Ramadan and Madinet es-
Salhiya el-Gedida in the east (see Chapter 11).