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Message:: [QUOTE="ancient coin hunter, post: 3746875, member: 87200"]A gradual change in the selection of crops grown. Today Egypt produces vast quantities of sugar in the form of sugar cane which started in the Ottoman period - this was not a cash crop in ancient or in medieval times. Also cotton, which was introduced in Colonial times.  It's to the point that wheat is mostly imported from the U.S. Bread is still essentially free since the cost (25 piastres) for 5 loaves of flatbread is infinitesimal since today the Egyptian pound is worth 1/16 of the US dollar. 25 piastres is one quarter pound, so you can see how cheap it is. In my travels I have noticed that there are two economies in the country - one for tourists who pay Western prices for accommodations and food, mostly purchased from tour operators in advance, and the local economy where one goes to purchase bread from the local baker's shop early in the morning after the morning prayer is sounded by the mu'ezzin. The Aswan dam, which keeps the Nile from flooding and has led to the "modern" country, was a disaster because the country now relies on fertilizers for agricultural production and not the annual deposit of the highly fertile silt. One of the side effects of sugar production is the dismantling of monuments (Asar) from the Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods to build kilns for the reduction of the sugar cane throughout the country. Kind of a sad state of affairs for antiquarians.[/QUOTE]