The history of Egyptian cotton

Egyptian cotton

Egyptian cotton is well known all over the world, when we mention to the Egyptian cotton  we mean comfort and feel.However people nowadays still don’t know or have no idea where Egyptian cotton originated or even know how it has become a staple of the textile industry. 

Egyptian cotton derived from a large family of different types of cotton. There is cotton which comes from Asia and cotton which comes from the West Indies. Also,There are Hybrid types of cotton, Like American-Egyptian cotton from which pima cotton is derived. the length of the cotton fibers is one of the major advantages; the longer the fibers are, the softer the cotton is. Egyptian cotton has a very soft, almost silky, texture. Because it is quite long fibers. 

Egyptian cotton is not like other types of cotton because it is usually handled by farmers and not by machines. No pesticides are used, no chemicals are used to clean up the cotton, and there are no machines used to pick the cotton. So, the cotton remains soft As the fibers are not disturbed during harvest.

However,Egyptian Cotton has existed in Egypt since ancient, almost even prehistoric, times. Native cotton in Egypt was actually not of a very good quality. So, when an Ethiopian cotton was sent to Egypt, the founder of modern Egypt was advised to buy some so that he could grow just a small plot. After the first harvest was exported, he began to grow and grow more of the cotton. Cotton trade was most especially busy in a square in Alexandria, where the first trading began in 1865.

One of the very important part of Egyptian cotton's history is the Nile. In the absence of the Nile, cotton and other crops would not have survived for very long. Egypt's moderate climate also played an integral role in developing the popularity and long-standing characteristic of cotton as Egypt's cash crop. the crops began to improve in quality because of  improvements to Egypt's irrigation systems increased cotton's wealth-producing power. 

Today, cotton is still grown heavily in Egypt, both in the northern and in the southern parts. However, the lesser quality cotton is marked for domestic use while the better grades and qualities are marked for export worldwide. The price of Egyptian cotton is increasing and it consider higher than its counterparts because of the way in which it is processed and because of its unique fiber structure. Therefore, Today Egyptian cotton remains as special as it was hundreds of years ago.