The population of the country must have been large at the earliest
period, as one hundred thousand men were employed in the construction of
the Great Pyramid alone during the fourth dynasty, nearly 3600 years B.
C. It has been placed at seven million under the Pharaohs, distributed
in eighteen hundred towns, which had increased to two thousand under
Amasis (525 B. C.), and upwards of three thousand under the Ptolemies.
In the reign of Nero it amounted to seven million eight hundred
thousand. In 1707 it was eleven million, one hundred and forty thousand
in Egypt proper, or, including Nubia and other dependencies nearly
twenty millions.
[Illustration: =TITANIC IRRIGATION DAMS OF MODERN EGYPT=
=THE BARRAGE AT ASSIOUT ACROSS THE NILE=
This dam, though not so large as that of Assuan, is still a gigantic
structure. It is over half a mile in length and its massive wall is
pierced by one hundred and ten bays or sluices, each over sixteen feet
in width.]
[Illustration: This is a view of the great dam at Assuan, across the
Nile in upper Egypt, showing the ruins of the beautiful Temple of Philæ
partially submerged. The Assuan dam was the largest in the world until
the completion of the Elephant Butte dam, New Mexico, in May, 1916.]