Many people seem to have the impression that Egypt is a small country, perhaps comparable with Luxembourg and/or Liechtenstein, and are genuinely amazed to find out that the train journey from Cairo to Luxor takes about 10 – 12 hours (415 miles, or 668 km), and that Abu Simbel is not just outside of Cairo: it is, in fact, 690 miles (1,111 km) south of Cairo.
In reality, Egypt has a landmass of approximately 38,6874 miles2 (1,002,000 km2) which is about 30th in the world, four times the size of the UK, three times bigger than Germany, and twice the size of France! The size misconception could maybe be explained by realizing that of its total landmass; only 3.5% is actually used for agriculture and settlements, the remaining 96.5% being desert: meaning that the habitable landmass is comparable with Moldova or Belgium!
Below is a table that shows the distances (by road and/or rail) between the major cities and sites in Egypt.
Cairo to Alexandria 178 km
Al Jizah to Port Said 173 km
Suez to Luxor 475 km
Asyut to Al Mansurah 429 km
Tanda to Al Fayyum 165 km
Zagazig to Ismailia 74 km
Aswan to Qina 231 km
Damanhur to Al Minya 326 km
Sohag to Bani Suwayf 286 km
Shibin al Kawm to Banha 19 km
Kafr ash Shaykh to Arish 272 km
Hurghada to Damietta 501 km
Al Kharijah to Mersa Matruh 732 km
* All distances are in Km. (1 km. = 0.62 Miles)