Little Egypt is a term for the extreme southern region of the American state of Illinois. The southern part of Illinois is geographically, culturally, and economically different from the rest of the state, relating more to the culture of the Southern United

States.

Location
The northern boundary of the Little Egypt region has never been precisely defined, and hence different references will give varying descriptions of what is included in the region.
One potentially defining aspect is geography: Southern Illinois becomes generally flatter as one goes north. Little Egypt is known for being hilly, but where the hills end is not all that clear. One popular boundary is the imaginary line created by the Cities of Marion, Carbondale, and Harrisburg. Inhabitants north of these places refer to the region simply as "Southern Illinois."
Another popular boundary for Southern Illinois is U.S. Highway 50. It runs nearly straight east-west.
Another aspect is forestation: Trees become fewer and farther between as one travels north in Southern Illinois. Before settlement, the far south was completely forested. Toward the north "prairies", large, open grasslands, appeared within the forest. Traveling north, the prairies became larger. Somewhere around Centralia, the area of prairie became greater than the area of forest. But, even there, if you were in a prairie, there was always a wall of trees on the horizon. Somewhere close to Effingham, the smaller prairies merged into the great prairie. There was no longer a wall of trees on the horizon, but rather groves and isolated trees.
A third involves culture. Little Egypt, and most of the rest of Illinois, was originally settled by Southerners. By the 1840s, canals and railroads allowed northern settlers to move directly west to northern Illinois, without coming down the Ohio River and up the state. Little Egypt saw less of this migration, since its reverie walls were for many decades a barrier to east/west rails. Salem, Illinois, had the main east/west rail line from Baltimore, Maryland, to St. Louis.