TRANSFORMATION OF LAKE MŒRIS INTO THE FAYÛM OF TO-DAY.
Assuming that the conception of Lake Mœris, as given in this paper, is a true one, we have now to consider how the change to present conditions in the Fayûm came about.
In the passage quoted from ‘Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoë,’ Mr. Petrie states that “apparently under the Persians or Ptolemies the desire to acquire more land in the Fayûm at the expense of the irrigation of the Nile valley, led to restricting the inflow, and gradually drying up the lake.”
Mr. Cope Whitehouse, in one of his papers, points out that Mœris, in its character of regulator and reservoir, existed chiefly for remote provinces, and therefore required for its maintenance a strong central government with sufficient administrative skill and energy to take the necessary steps and to expend the necessary amount of money to secure the maintenance of the reservoir, canal, and regulators in working order. Under a careless government, or while anarchy, or internal or external troubles weakened administration, the private interests of individuals who were on the spot to assert themselves, would have prevailed over the public claims of the Northerners, powerless to keep watch over and to insist upon their rights from the distant towns of the Delta. A corrupt Public Works Department, uncontrolled by a chief with broad views of what was desirable in the general interests of Egypt, may have permitted each chief engineer of a nome to do what seemed good in his own eyes for the profit of the particular part of Egypt in which he was the Public Works officer. If we imagine that he had scruples, there have not been absent, in the modern history of the Irrigation Department of Egypt, instances of the application of means for overcoming scruples, and, as so much else in the customs of the country can be traced back to that far past time when Lake Mœris must have been languishing towards extinction, we may also suppose that the Eastern salve for tender consciences was applied and the scruples overcome.
But whatever the cause (and there is nothing but speculation, which can help us to imagine it), at some time or other, either by a gradual or sudden process, Lake Mœris ceased to perform its offices of regulator and reservoir, which had won for it the admiration of all who visited it. Having once reached the stage when it ceased to be useful in supplementing the low Nile, there would be nothing to prevent measures being taken to exclude all water, but such as was necessary for the irrigation of the reclaimed areas. Evaporation would lower the Lake level year by year, and leave more land uncovered. Year by year the Lake would contract itself, and retire to lower levels, until it had reached the present dimensions of the modern Lake Qurûn, whose water surface at the commencement of May 1892 was 43·50 metres below mean sea-level. The rate of the lake’s retreat was doubtless not uniform and continuous, but was retarded by accidents and breaches of the barrier, raised against the Nile floods, causing a return of the water over reclaimed lands. The deep ravines of the Fayûm are nature’s bold strokes on the face of the province, which record some of the victories of the water, in its efforts to fulfil the law imposed on it to find its own level, over man’s endeavours to control this law.
Evaporation by itself, had its results not been vitiated by other causes, would have lowered the lake surface by about 2 metres a year, but the drainage and waste from the reclaimed area under irrigation would have retarded the fall, and breaches would probably have occasionally converted the fall into a rise. It is therefore difficult to assign dates for different levels of the lake surface, but probably the old towns at different levels around the borders of the Fayûm, so far as their dates can be fixed, will, when their levels have been correctly ascertained, throw some light on this subject.
The former manner of conducting the irrigation of parts of the province would have caused a much larger proportionate discharge into the lake, than finds its way to it at present. Considerable areas were enclosed by banks, and inundated under the Basin system, known in the Fayûm as “Malaq,” in contradistinction to irrigation by small field channels, a system called “Misqâwi.” The contents of these small basins, when emptied, flowed into the lake. On the south side of the Fayûm there was, until late years, a large basin known as “Hod-el-Tuyûr” (the Basin of the Birds), which was formed by building an immense wall across a fold of contour R.L. 15·00. The top of this wall is about R.L. 16·00. The bed of the basin is at R.L. 12·00, so we may conclude that, when this wall was built, the lake levels must have been at any rate below R.L. 12·00. This basin was abolished in 1886, and ordinary perennial irrigation introduced over the area formerly included within the basin limits. Since then the fall of the lake surface has been more rapid, in spite of its annually diminishing evaporating area.
The existing lake, which is the rudiment of the large lake that once filled the whole of the Fayûm depression, is called Lake Qurûn, or el-Qurn, the Lake of the Horns, or the Horn, apparently so named from a rock that projects into the lake from its west side and called “el-Qurn.”
It is evident, from the levels of the rock bed underlying the Nile deposit near Hawârah, that the original course of the waters flowing into Lake Mœris (after it became Lake Mœris by introducing means of controlling its waters) must have been along the ravine which runs to the north of the modern village of Hawârat-el-Maqta. The bed of the present Bahr Yûsuf, at a point about a kilometre below that village, is rock at R.L. 21·00, and this rock joins the high desert on the south of the Bahr Yûsuf. But on the north it dips down, and close under Hawârat-el-Maqta has been found to have its original surface at R.L. 19·17, dipping still lower towards the north-east. [Plate XXV.] gives cross-sections of the entrance valley of the Fayûm, and also of the ravine behind Hawârat-el-Maqta.
“Hawârat-el-Maqta” signifies “Hawârah of the Breach,” and round about this village lay the battlefields where many a struggle was made by man to get the mastery of the water, until he at last prevailed. Massive walls and solid banks, retaining the Bahr Yûsuf in its high level channel, and barring the passage into ravines, scoured out by previous torrents of water bursting away from control, mark the sites of many a breach, and suggest sleepless and anxious nights of hard labour for the wretched irrigation officer in charge in the days when the water seemed to have asserted its rights to flow where it pleased.
On the left of the Bahr Yûsuf are the remains of a channel, which was clearly a temporary one for carrying the water, while a breach near Hawârat-el-Maqta was being repaired. Linant Pasha tells of the occurrence of one of these breaches on the west of Hawârat-el-Maqta as late as the commencement of this century (in 1819 or 1820). He states that this breach caused much damage. An attempt was made to close it during the floods, but in spite of all that could be done, and in spite of the energy of the people employed by Mehemet Ali, it was not till after six months at the time of low water that the closure was effected. It appears that the old bridge at Lahûn (the only one existing at the time) could not be closed, when the breach occurred, probably for want of suitable closing apparatus. This breach was down-stream of the rock bed in the Bahr Yûsuf.
When the level of Lake Mœris was kept up to levels above R.L. 17·50, the regulator at Hawârah near the Labyrinth, which I have supposed controlled the entry of the water into the lake, would have admitted the flood waters freely until the lake rose to the maximum allowable, say R.L. 22·00. If then closed, and supposing the Nile levels to have been 2 metres lower then than now, the regulator would probably have been subjected to a head of about 3 metres as a maximum, but afterwards when Lake Mœris ceased its functions and the lake fell to low levels, the regulator would have had to hold up a head of water equal to the depth of water on its floor, in order to exclude the water from the lake. The right and left side channels would have taken in water from above the regulator for irrigating the reclaimed tracts. The drainage of the irrigated areas would have commenced to form drainage channels, the right drainage following the bed of the original inflow channel into Lake Mœris. As the lake level continued to fall, the drains would have scoured themselves out to lower levels, and cut back. The canals too would then have breached into the deepening ravines.
Plate XXV.
CROSS SECTION OF THE ENTRANCE VALLEY TO THE FAYÛM AT THE OLD BAHR WARDAN MOUTH, 3 KILOMETRES ABOVE HAWÂRAT-EL-MAQTA.
CROSS SECTION OF RAVINE BEHIND HAWÂRAT-EL-MAQTA.
On the opposite sides of the ravine and in face of the village of Hawârat-el-Maqta, during one of my inspections, I came across the remains of two ancient canals, shown on the sketch map, [Plate XXVI.] Starting from the present edge of the ravine are two old canals, clearly distinguishable as such by the existing banks, which are of considerable height. In the angle between the two are the remains of an ancient town, and fragments of granite pillars. One of these fragments was part of the shaft of a large pillar of the clustered-stalk design.
Both these canals, after a few hundred yards, lose themselves in broken ground sloping down and tailing into the main ravine.
Probably the left canal was the first made, and, when it breached into the ravine on its left, the right canal was made to take its place, which in its turn also breached and found its way into the ravine. The take-off was then shifted farther up the Bahr Yûsuf to the position of the present head of the Bahr Sêlah. The dotted lines show the supposed continuations of the two old canals. To feed them, either the ravine must have been dammed below their present take-off from it, or else they must have been continued across the head of the ravine to the banks of the Bahr Yûsuf. The fact that the second diversion diverges from the old canal just where it leaves the ravine, suggests the former alternative, but more probably this was made the point of departure from the first channel so as to utilise the banks, which already existed, for crossing the ravine and avoid the necessity for making a new crossing.
Joined on to the breached end of the left canal there exist some curious vestiges of irrigation works, which have failed. It appears that there was originally an earth dam A B joining the banks of one or other of these two old canals with a point in the direction of or across the ravine. In the line of this bank where the height was greatest, was a thick masonry wall, now known as “Hêt Rozma.” This wall is made of brick and rubble stone of a very inferior quality, built in mortar made of lime and mud; it is 90 metres in length, 5 metres thick, and 6·70 metres high. (The top of this wall is at R.L. 21·35.) The bare end of the wall is evidently the original masonry end, as it was built, no part of the wall having been carried away when the bank, which must have joined its outer end, disappeared. The bank, of which this wall formed the centre, evidently breached and scoured out a hole, marked by the pool C below the breach. This breach was repaired by adding an inclined wall D E to the Hêt Rozma, continued by an earth bank E F to the bank of the old left canal. Again another bank G F seems to have been formed above this, and to have breached. The violent action of the water is shown by the circular hollow H, which has been scooped out of the level ground upstream of this breach.
Plate XXVI.
Stanford Geog. Estab. London
SKETCH MAP OF THE GROUND BETWEEN HAWÂRAT-EL-MAQTA AND HAWÂRAH PYRAMID.
Note.—The ravines are not correctly mapped, but only sketched in to show generally how the ground is broken up.
I give this description to indicate what interesting problems there are to solve, or lose oneself in conjectures about, in various parts of the Fayûm Province, and especially in the neighbourhood of Hawârat-el-Maqta and the wonderful Labyrinth.
Given then the actual conditions of a considerable difference of level, continually increasing, between the water at its entrance to the Fayûm, and the lake surface, and, from an irrigation point of view, a steep surface slope to the country under irrigation, ravines would commence to form along the lines where drainage and the water, discharged by canal breaches, would collect to flow towards the lake. Wherever also an inundated area, surrounded by banks, effected the discharge of the water contained in the basin, there would be made the beginning of a ravine, which may afterwards have been utilised as an irrigation or drainage channel.
The main drainage lines of the north and south were naturally formed along the lines, where the rounded concentric contours of the central part of the Fayûm double back to run along the north and south sides of the depression, as shown in the diagram ([Plate XIX.]). At many points the rock being reached, further deepening of the channel was checked. The rock being close to the surface along the upper part of the course of the south main drainage line, a deep ravine has not been formed, until after the village of Miniet-el-Hêt is passed.
But the north drainage line has been scoured out and cut back to the banks of the Bahr Yûsuf itself, so that deep ravines exist within a short distance of and parallel to its present watercourse. Into these ravines a breach would precipitate all the main canal supply, if such were to occur from negligence or from rashly permitting irrigation to be conducted from heads roughly constructed by the fellahîn in the Bahr Yûsuf banks.
Probably some small village channel, allowed to take off directly from the Bahr Yûsuf without a proper head, and used to irrigate some low lands along the slopes of the main ravine, caused a minor ravine to commence and grow, until, cutting back as far as its head, it eventually gave rise to the breach of 1820, which resulted in a widening out of the branch ravine until it attained its present dimensions.
It is, I think, evident that, when Lake Mœris ceased to be, Hawârat-el-Maqta was the key to the position and the point where the problem of the Fayûm irrigation had to be solved. It was necessary for the irrigation of the whole province, that the water-level should be held up at this point, so as to flow along the ridge between Hawârat-el-Maqta and Medineh, from which the whole province, with the exception of the land on the right of the north drainage line, was commanded. For the irrigation from the Bahr Sêlah or from the ancient canals, of which the Bahr Sêlah is the modern representative, it was necessary also that the water should not be allowed to run to low levels down the ravine at the back of Hawârat-el-Maqta. The principal operation then to be performed was to bar this ravine to the passage of the water, and to make the water flow forward along the ridge to Medineh at a high enough level at least to pass over the rocky bed, which is now found in the modern Bahr Yûsuf about a kilometre beyond Hawârah. This end being attained, the water would flow along the ridge, from the sides and end of which it would be distributed into the different branch canals covering the face of the province. Works to control the quantity of water given to each branch, and weirs to head-up the water at intervals along the canals of too rapid a slope would have been added as the want of them made itself felt.
The lake level would become lower year by year, and more land would be reclaimed and brought under cultivation.
At some period of this process, probably after a breach at Hawârat-el-Maqta, or on the failure of the regulator supposed to have formerly existed at Hawârah, the Lahûn bank and its old regulator would have been formed to exclude the excess of water and to control the discharge admitted into the Fayûm. (For sections of these banks, see [Plate XXVII.])
I have suggested before that the part of the Lahûn bank which runs east and west was made in the time of Lake Mœris, and that the part from Lahûn to the south side of the gap, which crosses the Bahr Yûsuf at the old Lahûn Bridge, was subsequently made to shut out the Nile floods, when for some reason the means of regulation within the Fayûm at Hawârah ceased to be efficient.
The old Lahûn Bridge has three openings of 2·67 width, the floor level of two of them being at R.L. 21·97 and of the third at R.L. 20·72, so that this bridge could only have been constructed after the discharge required by the Fayûm had fallen to the amount of its present requirements, or to even less, as the waterway is somewhat under what is desirable for the passage of 7 million cubic metres a day, the maximum discharge utilised in the Fayûm at the present day during floods.
Plate XXVII.
Bank Right of Lahûn Bridge, or Gisr Gadallah.
Bank Left of Lahûn Bridge, or Gisr Bahlawân.
CROSS SECTIONS OF LAHÛN BANKS.
It is evident, from the remains of canals along the north and south sides of the Fayûm, that at some time or other these slopes of the province were irrigated to higher levels than the limit of the present cultivation. On the right the old Bahr Wardan is traceable from its old mouth on the Bahr Yûsuf (Kom-el-Iswid) above the present Sêlah Head as far as the north-west corner of the Fayûm depression. It would appear that the water surface level of the Bahr Yûsuf at Hawârah must be lower now than when this canal was under conditions favourable for irrigation. Perhaps it worked when the regulator was, as supposed, at Hawârah, and before the Lahûn bank and old bridge shut out the high-level waters of the Nile flood.
On the south side of the Fayûm there are similarly the remains of an old canal within the limits of what is now desert. This was probably fed by an aqueduct formed along the top of the Minia wall, which held up the waters in Hod-el-Tuyûr. This wall and aqueduct were breached, and though the wall was restored, the aqueduct was not, and the supply was cut off from the high-level canal. The land depending on it consequently returned to desert. Large blocks of old masonry lying prone on the ground at some distance from the present wall show with what force the escaping waters must have rushed through the breaches to have been able to transport such massive blocks to so great a distance from their original position.
CHAPTER V.
THE FAYÛM IN THE FUTURE, AND POSSIBLE UTILISATION OF THE WADI RAIÂN.
The subject of storage reservoirs for husbanding the flood or winter surplus waters of the Nile with the object of supplementing the Low Nile is now under consideration and sub judice. Mr. W. Willcocks, M.I.C.E., has been appointed Director-General of Works for the study of this subject, and his final report has not yet been made.
It has been calculated that the total of the Nile discharges for even a minimum year is more than sufficient for all the needs of Egypt, developed to its fullest extent, and the main question to decide is where the reservoir is to be made and what form it is to take.
Portions of the Nile Valley itself could be made to store the water by forming one or several masonry dams across the Nile, and the Wadi Raiân could also be made to serve the same purpose by putting it into communication with the Nile by means of a channel cut in the range of hills which divides the depression from the Nile Valley.
The discussion of the advantages of the different methods of forming Nile reservoirs does not belong to this paper, but there is a probability that a reservoir in some form will be made, and that the Fayûm will receive its share of the resulting increase of the summer water supply. Its present summer supply would probably be doubled, which would enable the province to increase the area under cotton from about 50,000 to 100,000 feddans, but would otherwise have no great effect on the province. The expansion of the present area under cultivation in the Fayûm to the lands along the north-east and south borders of the province does not depend so much on an increase to the present supply as on the construction of canals designed to carry sufficient water at a high enough level to command the lands above the present limits of cultivation. There is no want of water during Nile flood time outside the intake of the Fayûm, but its present canals will not carry more than a total discharge of 7,000,000 cubic metres a day, and therefore that is the maximum allowed to pass through the Lahûn bridges.
If, however, the Wadi Raiân were to be made a reservoir, the reclamation of the lands along the south and south-west borders of the Fayûm would be made comparatively easy. What this area amounts to is rather uncertain.
In Chapter III. the conclusion was arrived at, that the Wadi Raiân depression had never hitherto acted as a regulator to control the Nile floods and supplement the Low Nile, and that its past history shows no record of useful work, so far as the irrigation of Egypt is concerned. But this fact does not affect the question of its possible uses in the future, for which its physical features and geographical position may fit it. It is a depression, separated by a short width of hill from the Nile Valley, and if filled with water up to R.L. 24·00, would become a lake, having a surface area of about 600 million square metres, and a greatest depth of 64 metres. There is no doubt that the communication could be made; the only question is, would it be worth the expense, and could not better results be obtained for the same expenditure by the adoption of other rival projects. This question is now being considered by the Ministry of Public Works.
There are four uses which the Wadi Raiân depression might be made to serve, if a communication with the Nile Valley were established.
It might be used,
| (1) | As a reservoir of control for the Nile floods. |
| (2) | As a reservoir of storage to supplement the Low Nile. |
| (3) | As an area to be brought under cultivation. |
| (4) | As a receptacle for the drainage of the Nile Valley during the flood season. |
(1) It would not make an efficient regulator for the control of the Nile floods, unless it were to be expressly reserved for this object, and its level kept low until all fear of the necessity of relief arising had passed. If it were considered necessary to provide for the relief of the Nile to the extent of 100 million cubic metres per day for 30 days, the lake, having an area (at R.L. 24·00) of 600 million square metres, should be kept at such a level as would allow of its receiving the 3000 million cubic metres without checking the inflow in consequence of its surface level becoming too high. An addition of 3000 million cubic metres to the reservoir would raise it about 4¾ metres, allowing for evaporation for 30 days. This is about the extreme duty the Wadi could perform as a reservoir of control, if it were expressly reserved as such; but, if it is to serve this object alone, the expenditure, which would be incurred in fitting it to do so, would certainly be considered out of proportion to the benefits to be obtained. An attempt to combine the two duties of controller of Nile floods, and feeder to Low Niles would probably result in failure, as the necessity of keeping the reservoir level low to fit it to act as an escape-valve during September might make it impossible to raise the level afterwards to a sufficient height to render it an efficient feeder to the Low Nile.
(2) It would, however, make an efficient feeder for supplementing the Low Nile, if the control of the flood Nile were neglected. If connected with the Nile about Beni Suef, and also with the Bahr Yûsuf (which could continue to flow into it after the Nile ceased to do so), the reservoir could easily be filled to R.L. + 26·00. Assuming R.L. 21·00 as the level to which the water in the reservoir would fall in summer, and allowing one metre for evaporation for six months, the volume required to fill the lake from R.L. 21 to 26 would be 600,000,000 square metres × (5 + 1) = 3600 million cubic metres. From November to January, say 90 days, the Bahr Yûsuf could supply an average of 12 million cubic metres a day at least, or 1080 million cubic metres, leaving 2520 million cubic metres for the direct Nile feeder during the 90 days of flood, or an average of 28 million cubic metres a day.
The reservoir would return to the Nile Valley 600,000,000 × (5 - 1) = 2400 million cubic metres. Allowing for a loss of 10 per cent. in the distributing canals outside the reservoir, we get a supply of (2400 - 240 =) 2160 million cubic metres available for irrigation.
Now 60 days is given as the critical period in Lower Egypt, when the Nile supply is generally insufficient. Subtracting 160 million cubic metres for the Fayûm, the 2000 million cubic metres remaining would therefore give an average discharge of 33 million cubic metres a day to supplement the Low Nile, and, if distributed in increasing quantities in proportion as the Nile fell, it might be so arranged as to prevent the Nile minimum discharge ever falling below 50 million cubic metres a day in the very lowest years of summer Nile.
But calculating with a period of 100 days, which is the length of the critical period for Upper Egypt, we obtain a mean discharge of 20 million cubic metres a day, which might be so distributed as to prevent the minimum Nile falling at any rate below 45 million cubic metres a day, as for instance below:—
| Month. | Minimum Nile Discharge without Reservoir. Monthly Average. | Supplied by Reservoir. | Total Increased Discharge. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March | 40,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 45,000,000 | ||
| April | 35,000,000 | 10,000,000 | 45,000,000 | ||
| May | 25,000,000 | 20,000,000 | 45,000,000 | ||
| June | 20,000,000 | 25,000,000 | 45,000,000 | ||
| 10 days of July | 30,000,000 | 15,000,000 | 45,000,000 |
This disposes of 1975 millions, whereas 2000 millions was the quantity calculated as being available after loss by evaporation in the lake, and by absorption and evaporation in the distributing canals outside the lake. I think, therefore, I have not overstated the capabilities of the reservoir as a feeder to supplement the Low Nile.
I have said nothing about the first filling of the lake, which is a question of no small difficulty. To fill it to R.L. 21·00, its low summer level when once in working order, would require a volume of 15,000 million cubic metres plus the quantity required to meet loss by evaporation during the time of filling.
(3) The idea that the depression might be converted into a cultivated basin is, I think, not likely to get beyond the stage of suggestion, as, with the object only of extending cultivation, the expense of connecting the Wadi Raiân with the Nile will not be incurred, since there are so many other projects of reclamation, which would need less expenditure and give a better return.
(4) The last use to which the Wadi Raiân might be put, and which has lately been suggested, is to adapt it for the reception of the drainage waters of the Nile Valley, after the basin area of at least Middle Egypt has been converted into Sêfi (summer) irrigation by means of the increased supply provided by the assumed existence of reservoirs in the Upper Nile Valley and a regulating dam at Asyût.
When all these basin lands are converted into tracts under perennial irrigation, there will be a great difficulty in the disposal of their drainage water during the time of high flood, and the Wadi Raiân affords a possible means of solving this problem. Even though the drainage might gain on evaporation and the Wadi Raiân become eventually full, its water surface could be annually so far lowered by allowing a flow out into the Nile during the summer months, as to prepare the basin for the reception of all the drainage it would be called upon to receive during the next flood season.
It would further be possible to combine the uses Nos. 2 and 4, and make the depression serve both as a receptacle of the drainage during the floods and a reservoir to supplement the Low Nile during summer. But it might be objected that the admixture of drainage with the reservoir waters, returned to the Nile in summer, might render the river water unfit for irrigation. Supposing the drainage discharge, which must be received into the reservoir, amounts to 15 million cubic metres a day for 80 days (probably a high estimate), the total volume of drainage water would amount to 1200 million cubic metres, or one-third of the quantity of water (3600 million cubic metres) required to fill the lake from R.L. 21 to 26, or half of the 2400 million cubic metres returned to the Nile Valley. This would be further diluted by the summer discharge of the Nile itself, to which it would be added.
If the reservoir were filled to R.L. 25 during the flood months by the drainage and flood waters together, the remaining metre could be added by a canal discharging 7 million cubic metres a day for 100 days in winter, and fed from the Ibrahimîyah Canal, or a new branch of it, which would replace the Bahr Yûsuf, when the latter was converted into the main drainage line consequent on the basin lands being brought under perennial irrigation.
If then the drainage water should not be found salt enough to seriously affect the quality of the reservoir water, the Wadi Raiân might be made to serve both the purposes stated.
It has been assumed in previous notes on the subject, that such a reservoir alongside the Fayûm would be capable of giving that province its summer supply, but there would be a difficulty in the way of doing this. Under present arrangements the water-level at the end of the Bahr Yûsuf at Medineh is maintained throughout the summer at R.L. 21·70. If the level were to be lowered, lands now commanded by the water would cease to be so. The Wadi Raiân reservoir, whose level has been assumed to fall to R.L. 21·00, while a length of canal of at least 40 kilometres would be required to convey the water to Medineh, could not, during part of the summer (after its water surface had fallen below R.L. 23·50) deliver water at the level at present maintained.
It would, probably, therefore be necessary, in spite of the adjacent reservoir, to supply the Fayûm during summer by a branch from the Ibrahimîyah Canal, but the reservoir could assist by providing for the irrigation of all the lands, now cultivated or capable of being reclaimed, on the left of the main south drainage line, and the part of the province watered by the Qalamshah Canal; that is, it would feed the Gharaq, Qalamshah, and Nezlah Canals, and so far assist in the summer irrigation of the province.
No doubt the proximity of a lake of 600 million square metres (280 square miles), filled to a high level with reference to the greater part of the Fayûm, would affect the climate of the province, and at any rate take some of the heat out of the south winds, which blow at intervals in March and April.