The cultivable part extends along the river line for a distance of about 10 m.
The Armenian highlands, which run generally parallel to the Caucasus, though at much lower elevations (5000-6000 ft.), are a plateau region, sometimes quite flat, sometimes gently undulating, clothed with luxuriant meadows and mostly cultivable.
Mountain alternates with valley, so that not more than one-eighth of the countrys entire area is cultivable.
At the time of the French occupation of Egypt in 1798, it was found that the cultivable soil covered 4,429,400 acres, but the quantity actually under cultivation did not exceed 3,520,000 acres, or six-elevenths of the entire surface.
Throughout Egypt the cultivable soil does not present any very great difference, being always the deposit of the river; it contains, however, more sand near the river than at a distance from it.