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THE FAYÛM
AND LAKE MŒRIS.

FRONTISPIECE.

OLD LAHÛN REGULATOR.

AT THE POINT WHERE THE BAHR YÛSUF TURNS WESTWARDS INTO THE FAYÛM.

The down-stream wing of the upper regulator is seen projecting into the foreground on the left-hand side, and the Lahûn Pyramid is visible in the distance.

THE FAYÛM
AND LAKE MŒRIS.

BY

MAJOR R. H. BROWN, Royal Engineers,
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF IRRIGATION, UPPER EGYPT.

WITH A PREFATORY NOTE BY
COL. SIR COLIN SCOTT-MONCRIEFF, K.C.M.G., C.S.I.,

And Illustrations
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR.

LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD,
26 & 27, COCKSPUR STREET, CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1892.

PREFATORY NOTE.

During the last nine years it has fallen to the honourable lot of a small band of English engineers, most of them trained in India, to effect a revolution in the irrigation system of old Egypt, and thereby materially to improve the wealth and agricultural prosperity of the country. This is not the place, nor would it be becoming on my part to tell what has been effected. We had the happy fortune to find things at their lowest ebb. We could hardly make a change without making an improvement. In all these improvements Major Robert Hanbury Brown, R.E., has from the first occupied a conspicuous place. Few Englishmen have gone through so many summer seasons as he has, in the blazing heat of Upper Egypt. For that has been his field of labour, and of that field the fertile, abnormal, neglected, quaint old Province of the Fayûm forms a part. Truly, an old world province! whose historical roll carries us back to very early days, before that venerable Sheikh Abraham had made his emigration from Assyrian Haran—a province abundantly watered, and therefore rich, and highly prized by Pharaoh and Ptolemy, Cæsar and Arab Khalif, until Mameluke misrule and Turkish brutish ignorance let it fall into decay.

It has fallen to Major Brown to help to restore the Fayûm, and he has thus obtained a very intimate knowledge of it. He is not the first author on this subject. Learned Germans and brilliant Frenchmen have already written on the Fayûm. Major Brown pretends neither to the learning of the one, nor to the brilliancy of the other, but he has, what neither one nor the other ever had, an accurate knowledge of the levels of the country. This information is quite indispensable to the hydraulic engineer, and it is strange that that distinguished Frenchman M. Linant de Bellefonds, who devoted so many years to the physical improvement of Egypt, should have been evidently without it.

Of course Major Brown could not write of the Fayûm without introducing the mystic Lake Mœris. Herodotus does not lie when he tells of the things he has actually seen, and he says he saw Lake Mœris. So it must have existed. But where was it? That is the question that has been asked from one generation to another.

In the following pages Major Brown, in simple, straightforward language, gives his opinion, and the reader may be sure that he does not talk of what he does not know. Whether his conclusions are correct or not, this account of the Fayûm is an important addition to our knowledge of the subject.

Colin Scott-Moncrieff,
Late Under-Secretary of State, Public Works Ministry, Cairo.

London, September 1st, 1892.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF PLATES.

THE FAYÛM
AND LAKE MŒRIS.

INTRODUCTION.

I commenced this paper with the sole object of giving a technical description of irrigation in the Fayûm Province as practised to-day, for the information of my brother officers in the Royal Engineers.

But let any one turn his face towards the Fayûm, he is sure to see the speculator’s will-o’-the-wisp of Lake Mœris, which must needs be followed over the marshy borders through a tangle of theories left high and dry, until the pursuer is submerged deep beneath the waters of the lake, and has to find his way out again as best he can with a theory of his own begetting or adopting.

The question of where and what Lake Mœris was has been guessed at by many, and some of the guesses have been rather wild and regardless of the attributes which the lake of the theory must be demonstrated to have, before it can be recognised as Lake Mœris.

In the time of the early Nile tourist and historian Herodotus, about 450 B.C., there existed in Egypt an extensive lake, known as Lake Mœris, of such dimensions, levels, and geographical position, that it absorbed the surplus waters of the overflowing Nile, and afterwards gave back to the dwindling river the water it had received from it, thus becoming a regulator to diminish the excesses of the Nile floods, and to supply the shortcomings of the shrunken summer flow. The benefits resulting to the land of Egypt from such a moderator of high and low Niles were supposed to have been great, and the idea of the possibility of restoring the boon to Egypt by the discovery of the true position of the ancient Lake Mœris has helped to increase the interest in the subject, which curiosity about one of the lost wonders of the world in the once glorious kingdom of the Pharaohs would alone have been sufficient to excite.

At the end of a long letter to Mr. Paul Ascherson about a journey in the Fayûm, Dr. Schweinfurth writes:—“It must have already occurred to you, that I, in these already much too comprehensive remarks, have kept going round about the Mœris question, like a cat round hot broth. I must guard myself from pulling unripe fruit, which in a not far future will be ripe for judgment.” This was written in January 1886. Dr. Schweinfurth seemed to expect that discoveries of papyri in the ruins of Arsinoë would be made, and the riddle by them be solved. We are still waiting for the papyri.

Though the fear of picking unripe fruit may produce an unfavourable state of mind for assisting to promote discussion, it is far preferable to M. Linant’s attitude with reference to this question, when he stated that “J’ai retrouvé la véritable situation de cet ancien lac ou réservoir d’eau,” and caused or allowed to be printed on the “Carte Hydrographique de la moyenne Égypte, par M. Linant de Bellefonds, Paris, 1854,” the following presumptuous and decidedly untrue statement: “Le mémoire publié par M. Linant, sur le lac Mœris, donne tous les éclaircissements désirables sur ce point de l’histoire ancienne de l’Égypte”!

Though more illumination has been thrown on the subject since this unfounded claim to finality was made, there still remains much information to collect about doubtful points of levels, identification of old ruined towns, and so forth, but I do not on that account consider that the fear of “too hastily confusing” the question should forbid the publication of fresh facts and speculations thereon, so long as the door is not slammed in the face of those who prefer to give their support to other theories.

I will briefly state the order, and reasons for the order, in which I have arranged the different parts into which this paper is divided.

I have described the “Fayûm of To-day” first, as a conception of its condition in the past must of necessity be founded on a knowledge of its condition in the present.

Next I give the statements made by the ancient travellers, as it is upon them that the ideas, of what Lake Mœris was, are based.

I then proceed to try and dispose of theories which I consider erroneous, so as to clear the way for a more correct view; or at least to expose some of the errors of statement which might mislead others into accepting or forming wrong notions on the subject. Next I give the views that I have adopted, and point out what support they have from others, and discuss M. Linant’s objections to the views favoured.

Then I have endeavoured to sketch the history of the Fayûm—

And lastly, I have added a few remarks about the possible future of the Wadi Raiân, and the effect upon the Fayûm of a more abundant supply of water in consequence of the construction of storage reservoirs now under consideration.

I have made use of all previous writings on the subject that I could lay hands on. Mr. Cope Whitehouse kindly lent me his papers and showed me where to get others. Mr. Flinders Petrie has also given me what information I applied to him for. The maps and levelling of the Fayûm, made under the direction of Lieut.-Col. J. C. Ross, C.M.G., late Inspector-General of Irrigation in Egypt, have naturally been invaluable aids to the study of the subject. Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, late Under-Secretary of State for Public Works, Egypt, has also given me his views on some points raised in this paper, and I have taken advantage of them. Miss M. Brodrick has most kindly assisted me in the correction of the proofs, and in other matters connected with the publication of this paper. Ali Bey Borhan, Chief Engineer of the Fayûm, and Monsieur A. Pini, in charge of works, have assisted me by collecting information and obtaining levels that were wanting.

Finally, I wish to lay claim to no originality in the views adopted. What I have aimed at in this paper is to work those views out, and to go more thoroughly into them than has hitherto been done, thereby making a contribution to the discussion of an unsolved problem, interesting alike to Engineers, Archæologists, and Classical Scholars.

As the metrical system is in use in Egypt, all dimensions and quantities are given throughout this paper in metres and cubic metres, and distances in kilometres.

Discharges are given as so many cubic metres per day of 24 hours.

Areas are given in feddans, which is the Egyptian acre.

R.L. signifies “reduced level,” or the level referred to mean sea-level:—e.g. “at R.L. 25·00” means that the spot, to which the figure relates, is 25 metres above mean sea-level; and “R.L. - 40·00” means 40 metres below mean sea-level.

A contour is the line running through all the points which are at the same level above or below mean sea-level.

An Egyptian pound, L.E., = 1¹⁄₃₉ English pound, £.

CHAPTER I.

THE FAYÛM OF TO-DAY.

Position of the Fayûm with reference to the Nile Valley.—About 50 miles south of Cairo, a branch line leaves the Upper Egypt line of railway and goes west. After crossing the Basin land of the Nile Valley, it enters the western desert, and after a short ascent and somewhat longer descent, it reaches the station of Edwah in the Province of The Fayûm.

This province is the most remarkable and interesting of all the provinces of Egypt. It is an oasis surrounded by desert, being separated from the Nile Valley by four to twelve kilometres width of the Libyan Desert, and being connected with it by a narrow neck of cultivation marking the gap in the Libyan Hills, by which the Bahr Yûsuf enters the Fayûm.

Depressions connected with the Fayûm.—Forming part of this province, and included in it administratively, is the Gharaq Basin or depression, which is partly cultivated, but surrounded by desert lands above the present limits of irrigation, and in communication with the Fayûm by a narrow neck at R.L. 16·00 (16 metres above mean sea-level).

Adjacent to the Gharaq Basin is another more considerable depression with an area of about one-quarter that of the Fayûm (at contour R.L. 25·00). This depression, known as the Wadi Raiân, had attention drawn to it by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, who proposed its utilisation as a reservoir for controlling the Nile floods, and supplementing the low summer Nile. This Wadi is now bare desert. Its lowest point is 40 metres below sea-level, and the depression thus corresponds, as a geological formation, with the Fayûm depression, the lowest point of which (the bed of Lake Qurûn), is known to be not less than 48, and is perhaps as much as 60 metres below mean sea-level, but soundings are required to establish the actuality of the greater depth.

The Wadi Raiân is surrounded by hills, on all sides rising above the level of + 36, except at two gaps in the hills separating it from the Gharaq Basin, which have their sills at R.L. 27·00 and 26·00 respectively.

The Fayûm Depression.—The Fayûm Province has the shape of a leaf, (see [Plate XIX.]) of which the Bahr Yûsuf, from its entrance at Lahûn to its end at Medineh, forms the stalk, and the different canals, branching from Medineh, the veins. The province is generally described as being formed of three plateaux, but this description can only properly be applied to that part of the Fayûm, most rich in Nile deposit, which lies between the main south drain (Wadi Nezlah) and the main north-east drain (the Bahr Bilamâ or Wadi Tamîyah).

The lower section given on [Plate XI.,] which is typical of this part of the Fayûm, shows the three plateaux, and gives the different surface inclinations. The contoured diagram, [Plate XIX.,] also shows the conformation of the Fayûm Province.

The two strips of land outside the main drainage lines have a different character, and considerably less Nile deposit (see [Map]).

Medineh, the chief town of the Fayûm, from which most of its canals and roads radiate, stands on ground (R.L. 22·50) three to four metres lower than the land of the Nile Valley in the neighbourhood of Lahûn, where the Bahr Yûsuf turns westward to enter the Fayûm.

From Medineh for 8 kilometres the country surface slope is 1 in 1400, for the next 4 kilometres 1 in 666, and then 1 in 150, till the Birket-el-Qurûn (Lake of the Horns) is reached. This lake occupies the lowest part of the Fayûm, and at the beginning of 1892 its water surface level was 43·30 metres below mean sea; while the bed of the lake is 5 metres lower at least.[1]

The Fayûm and Wadi Raiân together are everywhere encircled by a continuous range of hills, except where the Bahr Yûsuf enters through the gap in the Libyan Hills, and also towards the north of the Fayûm, where the height of the hills becomes less, but where there is probably no gap lower than R.L. 30, though this has not been actually established by levelling.

The Birket-el-Qurûn and Evaporation.—Such being the physical features of the Fayûm, it is evident that there is no outflow for the drainage of the province. All the drainage (except that of the Gharaq Basin) finds its way into the Birket-el-Qurûn and there evaporates. The present surface area of the lake is not accurately known, but being about 40 kilometres long by 5 broad, the area is about 200 square kilometres (78 square miles).

Notwithstanding the considerable quantity of water that drains into the lake during the twelve months of the year, its level has fallen steadily of late years. The following table gives the measure of the fall from the first of March of one year to the first of March of the next.

Level on 1st March.

There are no records of the level of the lake previous to 1885. Linant Pasha states in his ‘Mémoires’ that Vansleb, who was in the Fayûm in 1673, said that one embarked at Sanhûr to pass to the other side of the lake. Dead tamarisk bushes standing in the water seem to prove that the lake has in the past been lower by a metre or more than it is at present, for these tamarisks grow along the margin of the lake above the water edge, but not in it.

The fall of the lake is not continuous throughout the year, but generally takes place from the 1st March to the 31st October; the level rises from the 1st November to the end of January, and remains stationary during February.

If the area of the lake were more accurately determined, there are several problems of interest connected with evaporation and the “duty” of water which might be calculated out from the facts known about the fall of this lake, the level of which is recorded daily. The discharge entering the Fayûm throughout the year is known, as also approximately the areas under crop; but while the area of the lake remains so vaguely guessed at, the results of the calculation would be of little value, as the figure representing the lake area is an important factor in the calculations.

But the following figures give a measure of what the daily evaporation is in June and July, at least approximately:—

In 1889 and 1890, when there were exceptionally short summer supplies, and the drainage into Lake Qurûn must have been as little as it ever is, the lake levels were as follow:—

The evaporation, then, could not have been less than ·0093 of a metre per diem in June 1890; or less than ·008 per diem in June and July 1889 and July 1890.

Allowing for a slight amount of drainage finding its way into the lake, an estimate of 1 centimetre a day for evaporation during the three hottest months of the summer would seem to be nearly correct.

We have also the following figures:—

As, for half this period, the flow of water into the lake must have been considerable, the average fall per diem due to evaporation for these six months must have been certainly over 6 millimetres.

Observations on evaporation made in the Abassieh Observatory in Cairo give the following figures as the measure of the average evaporation for each month of the year:—

The average per diem for the three hottest months of the year, according to these observations, is ·0107, as against ·01 deduced from observations of the levels of Lake Qurûn. The figure given for July in the above list is higher than I should have expected, as the evaporation of that month I should estimate to be very slightly in excess of that of June or August; that is, about 1 centimetre a day.

Plate I.

THE BAHR YÛSUF, SKIRTING THE LIBYAN DESERT, IN THE NILE VALLEY.

The Bahr Yûsuf outside the Fayûm.—The Bahr Yûsuf (Canal of Joseph) is the watercourse that carries the Fayûm supply. It is not an artificial canal, but a naturally formed sinuous channel, resulting from the Nile flood water draining off the lands and following the line of least resistance along the low-lying part of the Nile Valley on the side of the Libyan Desert. [Plate I.] shows where the Bahr Yûsuf touches the desert and forms a line of separation between the fertile land of the Nile Valley with its grateful shade of trees and the barren desert sands under a scorching sun.

As is usual in the case of rivers which periodically overflow their banks, the land is highest alongside the Nile, and slopes away from it to the hills on either side. The high margins of the Nile are known in Egypt as the “Sahel.” As the Bahr Yûsuf has for a great many years been given an artificial connection with the Nile, and been used as a channel to carry flood water to inundate the lands along its course on both sides, it has imitated the Nile in its action on its borders, and raised a “Sahel” of its own on a smaller scale. The cross-section of the Nile Valley is thus roughly represented in the following diagram.

A former artificial connection of the Bahr Yûsuf with the Nile is plainly visible at Derût, 200 kilometres farther up the Nile Valley than Lahûn, the point at which the Bahr Yûsuf turns westward into the Fayûm. The artificial part is easily distinguished from the natural channel, as the former is straight with high spoil banks, resulting from the earth excavated to form the channel, whereas the latter is sinuous without any signs of spoil banks. The length of the channel from Derût to Lahûn, measured along its windings, is 270 kilometres, as against 200 kilometres measured as the crow flies.

A second artificial connection with the Nile farther south was made at Manfalût by the excavation of a channel 30 kilometres in length. The part of this that remains now is called the “Manfalûtîyah” or “old Bahr Yûsuf.” About twenty years ago a large canal, called the Ibrahimîyah, was made for the irrigation of the Khedive Ismail Pasha’s large sugar-cane plantations. It was made to take off from the Nile at Asyût, 30 kilometres above Manfalût and 61 kilometres above Derût. It absorbed part of the Manfalûtîyah Canal from Beni Qora to Derût. At Derût, regulators of a fine description were constructed for the distribution of the water, and a regulator of five openings of three metres’ span, with a lock 8·50 metres wide, was made as the head work of the Bahr Yûsuf, which under the new nomenclature became a branch of the Ibrahimîyah Canal. When the Ibrahimîyah Canal was first opened, it appears from the Mémoires on Public Works, published by Linant de Bellefonds Bey in 1872-73, that its discharge was small compared with its present discharge, and the Fayûm summer irrigation must have been limited. M. Linant states that the bed width of the main Ibrahimîyah was 35 metres, and its reputed depth in summer 1·50 metres; but, in consequence of the inefficient means of dredging, a depth of one metre at most was all that could be obtained at the lowest level of the Nile; and he calculates that the minimum discharge, which theoretically should have reached Derût, was 666,840 cubic metres per 24 hours (273 cubic feet a second), but, in consequence of the inefficient dredging, no more than 369,624 cubic metres per 24 hours (151 cubic feet a second) were delivered. Under present conditions in the worst years the minimum has never fallen below two million cubic metres per 24 hours (818 cubic feet a second) since, at any rate, 1883.

Plate II.

BRIDGE CARRYING THE BAZAAR STREET, MEDINET EL FAYÛM, OVER THE BAHR YÛSUF.

Of the Bahr Yûsuf before the Ibrahimîyah Canal was made, M. Linant remarks in the same Mémoires, that “it is the only canal in Egypt which, without receiving water from the river during the summer, nevertheless has enough to serve for the irrigation of the Fayûm from the springs in its bed.” These springs still supplement the summer supply of the Fayûm by adding to the discharge, which is apportioned to the Bahr Yûsuf at Derût, about a quarter of a million cubic metres a day (102 cubic feet a second).

During the summer and winter the water of the Bahr Yûsuf is (with the exception of an insignificant quantity lifted for the irrigation of small areas at different points along its course) reserved for the Fayûm, but during the flood season its channel is used to carry water for the inundation of the lands on both sides of it, and later it is made use of as the channel of discharge for the basins which it has filled, or helped to fill.

At Lahûn, where the Bahr Yûsuf turns into the Fayûm, the quantity of water admitted is controlled by two regulators. The lower bridge is a very ancient one ([frontispiece]), of what date is unknown. Its floor in Linant Pasha’s time had already partly given way, but from his description it would seem to be now in the same state in which it was more than twenty years ago. The upstream half has evidently been added to the downstream half, as there is a clean line of separation in the middle of the length of the present archway. This is only to be seen by entering the passage below the arches, as the junction is not visible from above.

In 1838 Linant Pasha caused the second regulator of three openings (two of three metres’ and one of four metres’ span) to be constructed as a precaution 80 metres above the old one, and it was a very wise precaution to take. The head of water is now divided between the two bridges so that the action is less severe than it was before the second bridge was constructed.

The present discharges passed by these regulators into the Fayûm are:—

During the flood season 6½ to 7 million cubic metres per day (2658 to 2863 cubic feet per second).

During the winter season 3 million cubic metres per day (1227 cubic feet per second).

During the summer season 1½ to 1 million cubic metres per day (713 to 409 cubic feet per second).

The ordinary and maximum and minimum levels of the Bahr Yûsuf are given in the list below:—

The Bahr Yûsuf inside the Fayûm.—At the end of the Bahr Yûsuf at Medineh the water-level is now kept constantly at R.L. 21·70 to 21·80. In Nile time any increase on this tail level is forbidden by the effect of the heading-up caused by the obstructions met with by the large flood discharge in its passage through the town between the houses which line its edges. The Bahr Yûsuf is bridged in this length twice, first by a three-arched bridge, [Plate II.,] which carries the main street and bazaar of Medineh; and again by a two-tubed tunnel, over which the mosque of Kait Bey is built, [Plate III.]

In passing through the bazaar with shops on either side the Bahr Yûsuf is crossed without its being noticed, and a stranger to the town is presently surprised to find himself on the other side of the canal to which he imagined himself to be.

Plate III.

TUNNEL ON BAHR YÛSUF,

OVER WHICH THE KAIT BEY MOSQUE IN MEDINET EL FAYÛM IS BUILT.

The waterways of these two constructions are sufficient to pass the winter discharge with but slight heading-up, but when the flood supply is flowing, they (assisted perhaps by old blocks of masonry and débris of fallen houses in the channel) cause a backing-up of the water of from 50 to 60 centimetres and thereby (with the level at the tail below the town fixed at R.L. 21·80) produce the maximum level above the town, which it is safe to allow.

The distance from Lahûn to the end of the Bahr Yûsuf at Medineh along the canal is 24 kilometres (15 miles). Between kilometre 11 and 14 the bed is rock, the highest point of the bed being at R.L. 21·00 and between kilometre 12 and 13. The bed elsewhere is generally between R.L. 17 and 19.

At kilometre 10·130, the Bahr (canal) Sêlah takes off on the right, and after flowing by the Hawârah pyramid and passing under the Fayûm railway, its water surface comes level with the soil and irrigates the strip of land bordering the Fayûm depression on the right of the main drainage line on this side.

Similarly at kilometre 15·5 the Bahr Gharaq takes off on the left of the Bahr Yûsuf, and, aided by the Bahr Qalamshah, irrigates the east slope of the Fayûm and the whole of the Gharaq Basin. The strip on the left of the south main drainage line, forming the sloping side of the Fayûm Basin on the south, is irrigated by the Bahr Nezlah, which takes off from the main canal at kilometre 16·370.

With the exception of the Bahr Tamîyah, which flows in the channel of the north-east main drain itself and irrigates the distant north corner of the province on the right of the drain, all the other canals irrigate the central part of the Fayûm, which lies between the two main drainage lines. These canals may be divided into three classes corresponding to the three plateaux:—

1. The short and high level canals irrigating the high land on both sides of the Bahr Yûsuf and round Medineh, roughly speaking all lands down to contour R.L. 18·00.

2. The medium canals, which irrigate between R.L. 18·00 and 10·00 or thereabouts.

3. The long ravine canals, which carry water to the distant parts of the Fayûm below contour R.L. 10·00.

In a lawless province like the Fayûm, such an arrangement of canals is of great assistance in the equal distribution of water to all parts of the province. The long canals of class 3 are, in their upper reaches, so far below the cultivated surface of the soil, that no crop-owner of the first and second plateaux would attempt to irrigate from them except by means of water-wheels, which have to be regularly licensed. The canals of the 2nd class are intermediate in level and length between the first and third, and do not conveniently irrigate, except at some considerable distance from their heads.

There is a further advantage gained by the water of the long canals falling at once to low levels at their commencement. Along the margins of the Bahr Yûsuf and round about Medineh is a considerable area of valuable land above the highest level reached by the water in the parent canal. To irrigate this, water is lifted in pitchers fastened to the side of the outer edge of undershot wheels, which are turned by the force of the water descending to the low-level beds of the ravine canals. These wheels turn day and night without ceasing, so long as there is sufficient water. A head of 25 centimetres is sufficient to turn an ordinary wheel which lifts the water about 2 metres, but when greater heads are obtainable, water is lifted in this way as much as from 4 to 6 metres ([Plate IV.]) A fall of 80 centimetres will work two wheels, one behind the other, which lift the water 5 metres.

The channel, carried by the imposing looking aqueduct of [Plate IV.,] is only 40 centimetres wide by 30 centimetres high, the whole thickness of the aqueduct being only 85 centimetres. The expense, incurred in building it, points to the value of a constant stream of water raised in this manner.

There are two kinds of wheels used, one in which the water lifted is contained in earthenware jars fastened to the side of the wheel near its outer edge, the arrangement of which is shown by the drawing, reproduced from Willcocks’ ‘Egyptian Irrigation’ ([Plate V.]) The other kind of wheel, called a tabût, has a hollow chambered tube of square cross-section forming its circumference, the holes to admit water into each chamber being made in such a position that the water, which enters the chamber when submerged, does not commence to flow out again, till the chamber approaches the highest point of its path. Below the point, at which the flow out commences, a trough is placed to catch the water.

It will be seen that in both these arrangements there is a loss of work in lifting the greater part of the water rather higher than the level at which it is utilised. The principle of the tabût will be understood from the drawing given on the same [plate No. V.,] as the other arrangement with pitchers. Either kind is known as a saqya hedêr.

Plate IV.

HIGH-LIFT WATER-WHEELS ON THE TAMÎYAH CANAL.

The pair of wheels shown on this Plate raise the water 4·50 metres, and are worked by a total fall of water of 0·55 metres.
As a means of estimating the heights and widths in the Plate, the widths of the arches are given.
Left-hand arch, 3 metres span; next arch on its right, 2½ metres span.

Plate V.

UNDERSHOT WHEEL FOR RAISING WATER.

Scale ¹⁄₅₀. From Willcocks’ ‘Egyptian Irrigation.’

SKETCH DIAGRAM OF TABÛT.

Drawn with side as if transparent, to show water in compartment, and principle.

The saqya mawâshi (saqya worked by cattle) and the shadûf are also employed to a small extent, as elsewhere in Egypt, but only for small areas.

There are 205 saqya hedêrs in the province. To obtain a license to erect one, the applicant has to pay L.E. 1 to get his application accepted, and L.E. 5 more, if the license is granted.

Water-mills.—The fall of the water is also used to turn mills for grinding corn, of which there are 243 in the province, which paid as tax in 1891 a total of 810l. (L.E. 791).

[Plate VI.] is from a photograph of one of the falls, below which are first a pair of tabût wheels, one behind the other, for lifting water to high-level lands, and, below these in the same mill-race, an undershot wheel working a mill for grinding corn.

The mills are worked either by turbines (panchakkis) of a pattern introduced from India thirty years ago, according to Mr. Willcocks, or by undershot wheels. The latter method is used, where the fall available to work the mill is small, but not less than 60 centimetres. The former system requires a fall of at least 1·60 metres.

Falls and Regulators.—For purposes of irrigation the fall of the country surface is excessive, and works have to be built at intervals along a canal, after the point where it begins to irrigate, to hold up the water-surface to a sufficient height to flow over the fields. These works are generally placed where the canal splits up into branches, and they take the form of a collection of small weirs. Where the maximum water-levels below all the weirs of such a group never rise above the level of their weir-sills we have a “free fall” in the case of each weir, and the discharge over each sill is directly proportional at all seasons to the length of the sill, which in each weir is made proportional to the area irrigated from the canal below the weir. Thus the collection of weirs not only holds up the water for the irrigation from the canal above it, but acts automatically as a just distributor of water to the canals below it. Such a group of weirs is called a nasbah, an Arabic word signifying “proportion.” The arrangement is thoroughly understood and appreciated by the Fayûm cultivators, and is useful in rendering unnecessary the employment of a numerous establishment of low-paid agents—a great end to gain in a country where the inferior employés are so easily corrupted.

There are, besides the nasbahs, a large number of small masonry works, as head regulators, sluice heads to branch canals, syphons, aqueducts, and pipe heads scattered all over the province, but there is nothing peculiar in them as irrigation works.

Plate VI.

NASBAH MITERTARIS.

The upper bridge at Lahûn has hitherto been closed by vertical needles, but in 1892 it has been altered, and will in future be regulated by horizontal planks. The openings have also all been made one width, namely, 3 metres.

Crops.—The area on which land tax was paid in 1891 was

The total amount received into the Government treasury on this area was L.E. 132,668, which gives an average of 57 piastres a feddan, or 11s. 2¾d. an acre.

The actually cultivated area of the Fayûm is said to be about 280,000 feddans. Almost the whole of this area is under crop during the flood season and winter, and about 50,000 to 60,000 feddans are planted with summer crops, chiefly cotton.

If cotton is grown, it is followed by a winter crop of wheat, clover, or beans, and this is followed by a flood crop of millet. The cotton is sown in March of one year, and the flood millet is harvested in November of the following year, so that three crops are obtained in twenty months. After the flood millet, clover will be sown, and this will be cleared off the ground in time to plant cotton, which will be picked and finished with in October. This makes five crops in thirty-one months. I believe that sometimes even this record is beaten, and three crops are got out of fifteen months.

Everything which is sent out of the Fayûm, with the exception of an insignificant quantity which is carried out by camels, is shown in the railway books, from which the following figures, in kantars, have been obtained. (A kantar = 98·09 lbs.)

Exports from the Fayûm Province.

The value of the exports in 1891 was not less than that given in the following calculation:—

The area on which an average land tax of 57 piastres a feddan was paid has been given before as 233,301 feddans (242,166 acres). Hence the value of cotton, cotton-seed, and cereals exported from the Fayûm in 1891 was at the rate of L.E. 4·397 a feddan (4l. 6s. 10d. an acre).

Clover, which is extensively cultivated, is all consumed in the province.

Besides the above, the Fayûm exports also figs, grapes, olives, quail, fish, mats, baskets, and a few other things.

The province is justly famed for its excellent figs, but the grapes are not of superior quality to those of other parts of Egypt, though they have the reputation of being so.

In 1891 Government farmed out the fisheries for a sum of L.E. 2000. Every day large numbers of fish, chiefly bulti (Nile carp) are sent in crates to Cairo. The bulti is excellent eating. Another common fish is the armûd, or Nile shad-fish alias sheath-fish or cat-fish (Silurus). It is considered by the natives to be good to eat, but according to others it is not fit for food.

Another handsome fish, called by the fishermen lâl, and also a fine species of the perch family, known to them as lafâsh, both from their appearance good table fish, are not uncommon, except by comparison with the abundant carp. The lafâsh grows to a great size, one that I photographed, measured, and weighed being 1·32 metres long, of 1 metre girth, and 92 lbs. weight.

The fishermen move about the lake in the most primitive kind of boats, propelled by the clumsiest possible oars, and without any sails. How long they will continue to be satisfied with their craft it is hard to say, but they show no signs of desiring anything better.

CHAPTER II.

ANCIENT TESTIMONY ABOUT LAKE MŒRIS.

Evidence concerning the existence of Lake Mœris, which has been briefly referred to in the Introduction, is to be gained from the following sources:—

The Egyptian monuments, in which are found inscriptions on stone and records on papyri.

The writings of Herodotus, who visited Egypt B.C. 450.

The writings of Diodorus Siculus, a Sicilian, and of Strabo, a Greek geographer and contemporary with Diodorus, about B.C. 25.

Lastly Pliny, A.D. 50 to 70.

It must be borne in mind, while reading their accounts, that, in attempting to give information as to the origin of Lake Mœris, they were undertaking a task beyond their powers, since, according to the scanty revelations of the monuments, which on this point are the only witnesses worthy of credence, the Lake Mœris existed 2000 years before Herodotus visited Egypt, and therefore must have been formed at a more remote date. What then these ancients may have been told as to the origin of Lake Mœris may well be classed with tradition, and be assigned its true value as such, but what they state, that they themselves saw, is as worthy of belief as statements found in the descriptions of any other sober historian’s personal experiences.

I am indebted to the Rev. Edwin Meyrick, M.A., for the translations of the passages from Herodotus, and to Mr. Edward Meyrick, of Marlborough College, for those from the other classics.

Translations from Ancient Authors, who have referred to Lake Mœris, and Arabic Tradition.

Herodotus, Book II. (B.C. 454).

“These twelve kings (who were governing Egypt at the time of which Herodotus was writing) agreed to leave a work which should make their names remembered, and, uniting all their powers, they built the Labyrinth, a little above the Lake Mœris, and situated as nearly as possible opposite the city called Crocodilopolis. (Here follows a description of the Labyrinth, in which it is stated to surpass the pyramids as a wonder of construction.)

“Adjoining the angle where the Labyrinth ends, is a pyramid, 240 feet high, on which large figures of animals are engraved. The entrance into this is subterranean.

“Now, the Labyrinth being such as I have described, the lake, named that of Mœris, causes still greater astonishment, on the bank of which this Labyrinth was built. The perimeter of this lake measures 3600 stadii, which is the same thing as 60 schœni. This measure is nearly equal to the entire seaboard of the whole of Egypt.

“This lake lies oblong north and south, being in its deepest part 50 fathoms deep. It tells its own story that it is artificially made, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, out-topping the water 50 fathoms each, and that part of them which is built under water is as much more. On the top of each is a colossal figure in stone, seated on a throne. So these pyramids are 100 fathoms high. Now, 100 fathoms are exactly equal to a stadius, consisting of six plethra, seeing that the fathom is equal to 6 feet, or four cubits, a foot measuring four palms, a cubit six palms.

“The water in the lake is not derived from local sources, for the earth in that part is naturally excessively dry and waterless, but it is brought in from the Nile by a canal. It takes six months filling and six months flowing back. During the six months of the return flow, it yields a talent of silver each day to the Treasury, and during the flow in, twenty minæ from the fish.

“The people of the country also told me that this lake on its western face, inland along the mountain which is over Memphis, has an underground outlet into the Syrtis, which is in Libya. But when I nowhere saw the earth-mounds which came from this excavation (for this was much upon my mind) I questioned those who lived in the neighbourhood of the lake as to where the excavated material could be. They told me that it had been carried out, and without difficulty they led me to believe it. For I knew by report that a similar thing had taken place in Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians. For burglars contrived a plan to carry off the treasures of King Sardanapalus, son of Ninus, which were valuable and guarded in subterranean treasuries. These burglars then, starting from their own dwellings, and calculating the distance, tunnelled to the palace. And when night came on they carried out the material, which was removed from the excavation into the river Tigris, which flows past Nineveh, until they accomplished what they wished. In a similar way to this I heard that the excavation also of the lake in Egypt had been carried out (except that it was done by daylight, not by night), inasmuch as the excavators carried the material to the Nile, and the Nile, receiving it, would disperse it. In this way the lake is said to have been excavated.”

Strabo, Book XVII. (B.C. 24).

Writing of the Arsinoïte Nome he says, “This province is the most remarkable of all in appearance, natural properties, and embellishment. It grows olive-trees which bear fruit. It produces wine in abundance, corn, pulse, and a great variety of other grains. . . .

“It has also a remarkable lake called the Lake of Mœris, large enough to be called a sea, and resembling the open sea in colour; its shores are also similar in appearance to sea-beaches, whence we may suspect a community of nature between them and the district about Ammon. For they are in fact not far distant from one another or from Parætonium, and as there is good reason to suppose that the latter temple formerly stood on the sea-shore, so also this district must formerly have been littoral. Lower Egypt and the parts towards the Serbonian Lake were then covered by the sea, perhaps connected with the Red Sea by Heroöpolis and the Elanitic Gulf. . . .

“Thus, the Lake of Mœris is, from its size and depth, capable of receiving the overflow of the Nile at its rising, and preventing the flooding of houses and gardens; when the river falls, the lake again discharges the water by a canal at both orifices, and it is available for irrigation. There are regulators at both ends of the canal for controlling the inflow and outflow. Near these is an immense stone Labyrinth, a work comparable with the Pyramids; and the tomb of the king who constructed it. . . .

“Sailing 100 furlongs further one comes to the city Arsinoë, formerly called Crocodilopolis.”

Diodorus Siculus, Book I. Chap. LI. (about B.C. 20).

“He (King Mœris) dug a lake 600 furlongs above the city (Memphis), which is amazingly useful and incredibly large. Its circumference is said to be 3600 furlongs, and its depth in most parts 50 fathoms. . . . For as the rising of the Nile is irregular, and the fertility of the country depends on its uniformity, he dug the lake for the reception of the superfluous water. And he constructed a canal from the river to the lake 80 furlongs in length and 300 feet in breadth. Through this he admitted or let out water as required, the mouth being opened or closed by an elaborate and costly process (for it cost not less than 50 talents whenever any one wished to open or close the mechanism). This lake has continued to serve the Egyptians for this purpose down to our own times, and is called the Lake of Mœris after its constructor. When the king dug it he left in the centre a place on which he built a tomb and two pyramids, one for himself and the other for his wife, a furlong in height, expecting thus to leave an immortal reputation for his benefactions. The revenue of the fisheries in the lake he gave to his wife for her allowance for perfumes and cosmetics generally; they brought in a sum of a talent of silver daily; for there are said to be twenty-two kinds of fish in it, and the quantity taken is so large that the numerous hands engaged in the salt-curing industry can hardly keep pace with the work.”

Pliny, Nat. Hist., Book V. Chap. 9 (A.D. 50-70).

“Between the nomes of Arsinoë and Memphis was a lake, 250 miles (i.e. Roman miles) in circumference; or, as Mucianus tells us, 450 miles in circumference and 50 paces in depth, artificially constructed, called the Lake of Mœris, from the king who made it. Seventy-two miles distant from this is Memphis, formerly the capital of Egypt.”

Pliny, Nat. Hist., Book XXXVI. Chap. 16.

“There were two other pyramids near the Lake of Mœris, which is a large excavation.”

Arabic Tradition,

as given by Mr. Cope Whitehouse in his article entitled “The Expansion of Egypt” in the Contemporary Review, September 1887, translated from an Arabic manuscript which once belonged to Cardinal Mazarin:—

“Joseph, to whom may Allah show mercy and grant peace, when he was Prime Minister of Egypt and high in favour with Raiyan, his sovereign, after that he was more than a hundred years old, became an object of envy to the favourites of the king and the puissant seigneurs of the Court of Memphis, on account of the great power which he wielded and the affection entertained for him by his monarch. They accordingly thus addressed the king: ‘Great king, Joseph is now very old; his knowledge has diminished; his beauty has faded; his judgment is unsound; his sagacity has failed.’ The king said: ‘Set him a task which shall serve as a test.’ At that time el-Fayoum was called el-Hun, or the Marsh. It served as a waste basin for the waters of Upper Egypt, which flowed in and out unrestrained. The courtiers having taken counsel together what to propose to the king, gave this reply to Pharaoh: ‘Lay the royal commands upon Joseph that he shall divert the water of the Nile from el-Hun and drain it, so as to give you a new province and an additional source of revenue.’ The king assented, and summoning Joseph to his presence, said: ‘You know how dearly I love my daughter, and you see that the time has arrived in which I ought to carve out an estate for her out of the crown lands, and give her a separate establishment, of which she would be the mistress. I have, however, no territory available for this purpose except the submerged land of el-Hun. It is in many respects favourably situated. It is a convenient distance from my capital. It is surrounded by desert. My daughter will thus be independent and protected.’ ‘Quite true, great king,’ responded Joseph, ‘when would you wish it done? for accomplished it shall be by the aid of Allah, the all-powerful.’ ‘The sooner, the better,’ said the king. Then Allah inspired Joseph with a plan. He directed him to make three canals; one from Upper Egypt, a canal on the east, and a canal on the west. Joseph collected workmen and dug the canal of Menhi from Ashmunîn to el-Lahûn. Then he excavated the canal of el-Fayoum, and the eastern canal, with another canal near it called Ben-Hamed to the west. In this way the water was drained from el-Hun; then he set an army of labourers at work. They cut down the tamarisks and bushes which grew there and carried them away. At the season when the Nile begins to rise the marsh had been converted into good cultivable land. The Nile rose; the water entered the mouth of the Menhi canal and flowed down the Nile Valley to el-Lahûn; thence it turned towards el-Fayoum, and entered that canal in such volume that it filled it, and converted the land into a region irrigated by the Nile. King Raiyan thereupon came to see his new province with the courtiers who had advised him to set Joseph this task. When they saw the result they greatly marvelled at the skill and inventive genius of Joseph, and exclaimed: ‘We do not know which most to admire, the draining of the marsh and the destruction of the noxious plants, or the conversion of its surface into fertile and well-watered fields.’ Then the King said to Joseph, ‘How long did it take you to bring this district into the excellent state in which I find it?’ ‘Seventy days,’ responded Joseph. Then Pharaoh turned to his courtiers and said: ‘Apparently one could not have done it in a thousand days.’ Thus the name was changed from el-Hun, or the Marsh, to el-Fayoum, ‘the land of a thousand days.’”

This pun is not to be appreciated in the translation without a knowledge of Arabic. Elf is the Arabic for a thousand, and yôm for a day; elf-yôm being a thousand days. As the work took seventy days to complete, according to the tradition, it does not appear clear why it should have been called “the land of a thousand days” instead of “the land of seventy days.” But the tradition must not be criticised, as it will not stand it.

The name Fayûm is derived from an old Coptic word phiûm signifying a sea or lake; el is simply the definite article.

CHAPTER III.

THEORIES AS TO WHERE AND WHAT LAKE MŒRIS WAS.

Postulates.—There seems to be a general agreement that Lake Mœris was in the Fayûm, the evidence being conclusive. There is, further, no disposition shown to question the fact, that the Labyrinth and the pyramid alongside it, were on the borders of Lake Mœris, and that the present capital of the Fayûm, Medineh or Medinet-el-Fayûm, occupies part of the site of the ancient town of Crocodilopolis, or, as it was called afterwards, Arsinoë.

There seems also to be sufficient evidence for accepting the conclusion, that the site of the Labyrinth was at the foot of the Hawârah pyramid.

It also seems to be agreed to accept the testimony of Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus, when they describe the uses which Lake Mœris served, namely, to receive part of the Nile waters when the river was in flood, and so to moderate its excesses, and also to return the stored-up water to the Nile, when its discharge had fallen low in summer, and so to supplement its deficiencies.

Statements not accepted as postulates.—These same witnesses made other statements, which have been accepted or rejected according to the individual views of different theorists. If Herodotus and others after him are rightly interpreted as stating that the Lake Mœris was artificially dug out by human labour, I too must claim the privilege of assuming that they were mistaken. As pointed out at the commencement of Chapter II. of this paper, Herodotus was trying to give an account of what took place more than, at least, 2000 years before, with no records to help him. Under such circumstances, accuracy as to the origin of Lake Mœris was not to be expected in his accounts. Being no engineer, and having a large belief in the marvellous, he might well have supposed the whole oasis artificially dug out. The absence of all signs of the earth resulting from this immense excavation puzzled him, and he asked what had become of it. He was told that it had been carried to the Nile, whose waters dispersed it, and this he readily believed, because he had heard of a similar proceeding in another country, where some thieves excavated an underground passage to a king’s treasury, and got rid of the earth resulting from the excavation by throwing it into a river at the outer end of their shaft. This is comparing small and great with a vengeance. The distance of the centre of the Lake Mœris excavation to the Nile would have been 50 kilometres (31 miles), and the quantity of earth to be carried and dispersed by the Nile would have been at least 50,000 million cubic metres. Such a task can scarcely be called similar to a simple mining operation.

The Egyptian of to-day, if asked to account for any assumed fact, will not pause to consider whether the assumed fact is really fact, but will at once invent some more or less plausible explanation to account for it. I will give a remarkable instance of a very generally believed explanation of an annual Egyptian phenomenon, though it has nothing to do with the Fayûm or Lake Mœris. In the summer the land surface of the inundation basins of Upper Egypt is split up into mazes of deep cracks, into which innumerable rats are seen to disappear when disturbed. On the waters entering the basins all this cracked area becomes submerged, and the question is, what becomes of the rats? Again, when the water is discharged from the basins after remaining in them two months, the rats are found (or appear) to be in as great numbers as before. Again the question is, where have the rats come from? The accepted explanation is that when the water comes the rats turn into mud, and when it retires the mud changes back again into rats. I could scarcely credit that so childish a belief was general, so I submitted the question to a large Assembly of Notables (collected for a different purpose), and several members came forward and declared they had seen the rats in the state of semi-transition, when half mud and half rat, and offered to catch and deliver one to me. I accepted the offer, but the matter has not yet gone any further.

Returning to the discussion of the statement that Lake Mœris was artificially excavated, it strikes one as being a senseless operation to dig out a basin to the depth given as being that of the deepest part of Lake Mœris, viz. 92 metres, as all the water lying below half the depth stated could have served no useful purpose, except from the point of view of aquatic animals that have a liking for deep water.

Theorists lay stress on some features testified to by the ancients, and explain away or discredit other points of their testimony according as they support or are hostile to their adopted theories; or else they give strained interpretations to other statements from the same motives. Such statements, for instance, as the following are subject to this varied treatment.

Herodotus, and others after him, state that the circumference of Lake Mœris was 720 kilometres (450 miles), or, as some interpret, 360 kilometres, according to the value of the stadius adopted. Depth, 92 metres.

The length of the lake lies north and south. It was artificially made. There were two pyramids, crowned by colossal statues, centrally situated in the lake, as viewed from the Labyrinth or Arsinoë.

The water in the lake was not derived from local sources, but was brought in from the Nile by a canal. The lake was between the Arsinoïte and Memphite nomes.

Crocodilopolis was on or near the borders of the lake, and 9400 metres from the Labyrinth.

Lake Mœris formed an elbow to the west, was oblong, and situate in the middle of the lands along the mountains above Memphis.

These statements are not in the original language in which they were made, and may be inaccurately translated, where accurate rendering is important. I have found for instance in different publications the two following translations of the same passage in Diodorus:—

(a) “A little south of Memphis a canal was cut for a lake, brought down in length from the city 40 miles.”

(b) “And a little above the city he cut a dyke for a pond, bringing it down in length from the city 320 furlongs.” (Translation by G. Booth.)

A canal and dyke are not synonymous terms, in all parts of England at any rate; nor are lake and pond.

Some of the statements are founded also on hearsay when they were first made, and the ancestors of the present inhabitants of the Fayûm may, for all that is known, have had as great a tendency to the widest possible departure from scientific accuracy of statement in their verbal representation of facts, as it is notorious that their modern successors have. Hence it is not surprising that human nature, which has a parental prejudice in favour of any theory to which it may have given birth, should take advantage of these weak points to the benefit of its offspring.

We will then proceed to discuss the present generation of theories, which exemplify this principle.

LINANT THEORY.

The most important of these theories is that of Linant de Bellefonds Pasha, once Minister of Public Works in Egypt.

His views will be found in Chapter II. of his ‘Mémoires sur les Principaux Travaux d’utilité publique exécutés en Egypte depuis la plus haute antiquité jusqu’à nos jours, 1872-1873.’

His theory, which defines the form and limits of Lake Mœris, appears to have been generally accepted after being propounded, and still to be the accepted theory with many, who have not, by a personal acquaintance with the Fayûm and its actual conformation and levels, corrected the ideas which they had accepted on the authority of Linant Pasha.

(For the names of places quoted from M. Linant’s writings I have adopted the more modern way of spelling, as otherwise the places might not be recognised. For instance, had it not been for the context, I should not have been able to recognise the village known as Abûksah in “Bogça.”)

Linant’s Theory stated.—M. Linant maintains that Lake Mœris occupied the gap in the hills by which the Bahr Yûsuf enters the Fayûm, and covered the so-called “plateau” on the south-east of Medineh, the encircling bank commencing at its north-east end at Edwah, and being continued through el-Alam, Biahmu, Zowyet-el-Karatsah, to Medineh. See [Plate VII.]

The remains of this bank he traced throughout this length, and saw evidences of it again to the S.S.E. of Medineh.

Thence he supposed that it must have passed on to Abgig (“je suppose qu’elle a dû passer à Ebgig”), el Sawafnah, Atamnah, and Gaafrah. Then he found it again constructed in masonry over a great length not far from the village of Miniet-el-Hêt. It continues afterwards (according to Linant Pasha) up to Shêkh Abu Nûr, and then takes the direction of “el Gharak in the plain,” where it is no longer well defined (“où elle n’est plus bien marquée”). He notes that at Bahr Nezlah its height (that is, the wall’s,) is 12 metres.[2] He then makes the bank pass on from the south-east of Sélé (?) to between Shêkh Danial and Tutûn, in an easterly direction, and turn to the north by Kalamshah, El Nedlé (?), to the Bahr Yûsuf, then following the Bahr Yûsuf up to Dimishkîn, turning along the banks at Lahûn (Bahlawân and Gedallah), it again returns to the west near Hawârat-el-Maqta, and, following the old canal Wardan, passes the Hawârah pyramid at the village of Dimu and joins the commencement of the bank at the south-east of Sêlah (Sélé).

Plate VII.

MAP SHOWING LINANT’S SUPPOSED LAKE MŒRIS.

From Rawlinson’s ‘Egypt,’ 1881.

All the land enclosed by this bank represents the site of Lake Mœris according to the theory of Linant de Bellefonds Pasha.

I give here a map, [Plate VII.,] copied from one of Mr. Cope Whitehouse’s papers on the Wadi Raiân, being a reproduction from the ‘Egypt’ of Canon Rawlinson, as it is a convenient one for demonstrating what this theory is. Linant’s Lake Mœris is shown on this map as a dark patch occupying what M. Linant calls the high plateau. The part where “LAKE” is printed is actually the highest part of the Fayûm, at R.L. 22 to 25, if we except the narrow pass by which the Bahr Yûsuf flows in. This latter has its land surface at from R.L. 24 to 26. But the word “MŒRIS” on the shaded area lies over a depression whose bed is at R.L. 12·00, that is, 11 to 12 metres lower than the land surface covered by the word “LAKE” on the same shaded area.

The north boundary of this area through el Edwah and el Alam runs generally along contour R.L. 17·50, 5 to 7 metres below the high plateau. It is therefore incorrect to speak of the ground represented by the shaded area as a plateau.

M. Linant’s depth of water in his supposed lake was fixed at 9·60 metres. Its bed must have been at R.L. 21·00, the level of the rock-bed at Hawârah, and its maximum water surface at R.L. 30·60. The height of the surrounding bank would have had to be, on the Edwah-el-Alam line, 15 metres, and at the Wadi Nezlah (at the initial letter of “MŒRIS” on the map) 20 metres.

Now the country lying between the Linant Lake Mœris and the Birket-el-Qurûn was said to be irrigated from this lake. Imagine the state of insecurity for this tract of sloping land, with a huge reservoir of water standing 13 metres above that part which lies along the north face of the lake, and more than this above the part along the west face. When one considers, too, that there must have been passages for irrigation through this bank, and how dangerous such an arrangement would be, it is scarcely credible that the collection of thriving towns included in the Arsinoïte nome would have grown in such a perilous situation. Imagine, also, the infiltration that would result on the lands along the faces of this lake. According to the theory, the Lake Linant, not being of sufficient dimensions itself to regulate the Nile, was to pass on the surplus into Birket-el-Qurûn by escapes on the two main drainage lines. Thus the poor fools, who had settled themselves on the strip between the two lakes, would be in danger of inundation, both from above and below, and would be in as bad a plight as Pharaoh’s horsemen in the Red Sea.

A diagrammatic section of the Fayûm ([Plate VIII.]), as it would have been when in this unhappy state (fortunately imaginary), will make the situation perhaps plainer. The diagram, by exaggerating the vertical dimensions with reference to the horizontals, emphasises the danger of the situation and shows how improbable it is that such a theory could be true.

Plate VIII.

SKETCH OF THE FAYÛM

From Lahûn through Biahmu to Lake Qurûn through the highest plateau, showing Linant’s supposed Lake.

It should be noted that the Linant Lake itself covers the richest land of the Fayûm, namely, that which, being near the first point of expansion of the inflow into the depression, had received the richest deposit during the time that the Fayûm was forming previous to the creation of Lake Mœris; and, further, it should be remarked that the remainder of the best land round the margins and for a considerable distance from the Linant lake banks would have been probably ruined by infiltration. Where, then, should we find the rich lands of the Arsinoïte Nome, so famous for their produce?

M. Linant objects (and there is, doubtless, weight in this objection) to the theory of the submergence of the Fayûm by a sufficient elevation of the waters of the Birket-el-Qurûn, that there would be no place for the Arsinoïte Nome; and he thinks that by his theory he has found a place for it between the two rival lakes. The ancient Egyptians, who lived before our era, must have had prodigious faith in their protecting deities, or in their department of public works, if they took up their abode behind Linant’s bank.

Such a peculiar arrangement of land and water as that supposed, would scarcely have been passed without notice by those who visited and described Lake Mœris. The Arsinoïte Nome would have been in some way described as being between two lakes, with a mass of water impending over it. The danger of such an arrangement in case of a breach would have been surely noted. Imagine also the condition of Arsinoë from its sanitary aspect in the hot months of summer, when by reason of all the water in the Linant lake being utilised, the bed of the lake would be laid bare at a time when no crops could be sown on it. But this objection may be met by supposing the lake to have been excavated to a sufficient depth for water to remain in it at lowest Nile. But if originally so excavated, a lake such as this was supposed to be, would rapidly silt up, and M. Linant supposes it silted up 8 metres, as is shown by his section and description. Could such a lake have continued in working order for over 2000 years, as it was supposed to have done? It would only have done so by means of periodical silt clearances of such magnitude, that the population of Egypt alone would not have been equal to the task. Suppose only a metre to be cleared over the whole area (assuming it a plateau according to M. Linant’s view of it), the quantity to be cleared would have been 250 million cubic metres, which would have to have been removed to a mean distance of at least 2000 metres! What would have happened to Linant’s supposed Arsinoïte Nome, and the west bank of the Nile irrigated by his Lake Mœris, while these clearances were going on?

The perimeter of Linant’s supposed lake is 96 kilometres (60 miles) measured on the map published in the atlas accompanying the book containing M. Linant’s theory. Its correct area is 257,800,000 square metres. But M. Linant himself gives the area as 405,479,000 square metres, which is 57 per cent. in excess of the true area as taken from his own map (see diagram, [Plate IX]). The paragraph in which this figure is given concludes: “Mais nous avons vu quelle foi on devait avoir dans les dimensions données par les auteurs anciens.” Need he have added “anciens”? M. Linant himself is the greatest argument for placing no faith in reported dimensions of lake areas, since, with his own map before him, and the limits of his lake definitely determined, he was unable to avoid so large an error.

The author of this theory states that it satisfies all the conditions required for its recognition as Lake Mœris. I think it will be found to satisfy very few, and obviously not the two following, regarding its size and depth.

It is generally stated that Herodotus gave the circuit of Lake Mœris as 450 miles, or 720 kilometres. The perimeter of M. Linant’s lake is about 110 kilometres, but he makes the difference less by adopting M. Jomard’s opinion, that Herodotus’ “stade” was “le petit stade,” whereby the circuit of the lake, according to Herodotus, would be 360 kilometres. Even thus we can scarcely admit this condition to be satisfied. But M. Linant, as we have seen, has no faith in the dimensions given by “les auteurs anciens,” but though his want of faith may be justified, his statement that this condition is satisfied is not.

Plate IX.

OUTLINE OF THE LINANT “LAKE MŒRIS.”

Taken from Linant’s own Map.

Another condition which M. Linant’s lake is far from satisfying, is the depth, which Herodotus gives as 92 metres. Linant makes his lake depth 9·60 metres, assuming that his lake area occupies a plateau, which it does not. The greatest depth of his lake, according to the actual levels of the ground included in it, would be 18·60 metres, against the 92 metres of Herodotus. This condition therefore is not satisfied.

Faulty Foundations on which the Linant Theory was built.—Had Linant Pasha had before him a contoured map of the Fayûm, I believe he would never have enunciated his theory. The Minia wall made an undue impression on him and has been his stumbling-block. He clearly traced the remains of a large bank from Edwah to Biahmu, and less plainly to Medineh, but after Medineh he found no traces of a bank, but being desirous of connecting up with the big wall, supposed that it must have passed through certain villages leading to it. This wall, closing a valley encircled by contour R.L. 15·00, was probably constructed at a much later date, or at any rate independently of the bank of which the remains are found on the other side of Medineh, and for a different purpose. If this wall had been originally higher there would be remains of the high parts at each end, where breaches had not carried away the original wall. This we do not find, but on the contrary, the crest of the wall is at one uniform level from end to end, and appears to have been added to, instead of taken from. From an examination of the abutments of the bridge, built in the line of the wall, the original wall appears to have been constructed of stone, and to have been widened subsequently by an addition of coarse brick masonry of rough bricks, in mortar made of lime and clay, probably with the view of obtaining width enough to carry an aqueduct along the top of the wall. None of the masonry is sufficiently good for this purpose, and so, no doubt, the water, leaking from the aqueduct channel, gave rise to breaches in the wall, of which the signs are evident in the blocks of masonry lying scattered about on its down-stream side.

The cross-section of the wall, [Plate X.,] gives its dimensions at a point near the bridge, where its height is greatest. Below this cross-section another of the Edwah-Biahmu bank is given for a comparison of the levels of wall and bank.[3]

Erroneous Data employed by Linant.—In Linant Pasha’s Atlas, published with his Mémoires, is to be found an extraordinary section of the Fayûm from Lahûn to Birket-el-Qurûn, in which the land from Lahûn to Medineh is shown as being higher than the land of Beni Suef on the Nile Valley side of Lahûn.

I reproduce his section on [Plate XI.,] and below it I give a section showing the actual levels. As Linant appears to refer all his levels to the rock bed at Hawârat-el-Maqta, which he makes 32·80 metres above sea, whereas it is really 21·00, it is necessary before comparison to apply a correction of - 11·80 to all his levels.

Plate X.

CROSS SECTION OF THE MINIA WALL.

CROSS SECTION OF THE EDWAH-BIAHMU BANK AT A POINT WEST OF EDWAH.

Comparing the figures after correction with those of the “actual section,” it will be found that Linant puts the level of the Beni Suef lands 5½ to 7 metres too low, and that of his first plateau 6 to 8 metres too high, with reference to the rock bed at Hawârat-el-Maqta. According to the corrected figures his Lake Mœris level would be + 32·00, but how he gets it to that level it is difficult to understand, inasmuch as he says that his lake is filled by the Bahr Yûsuf, whose high-water level is shown 4½ metres lower. (The Birket-el-Qurûn level, after applying the correction, becomes 40·80, which must have been about its correct level in Linant’s time.)

Plate XI.

SECTION OF THE FAYÛM THROUGH LAHÛN-MEDINEH-SANHUR. By M. LINANT.

ACTUAL SECTION ON THE SAME LINE.

Note.—The water-level of the Bahr Yûsuf from Lahûn to Medineh is a little below country level throughout.

I give another instance of error with reference to Linant’s conception of the first plateau. Writing of the bank from Edwah to el Alam, he states that the land to the south of this bank was about 2 metres below its crest, and to the north of it from 8 to 9 metres, which difference, he says, is explained by the deposition of silt in the interior of the basin formed by the bank, as is always seen elsewhere at all the banks of the inundation basins of Egypt. This great difference of level of the country surface on either side of the bank would have been very suggestive in a sense favourable to M. Linant’s theory had the difference of level been a fact instead of a fiction. The cross-section of the bank given on [Plate X.] shows its actual state with reference to the land on each side of it.

It seems scarcely necessary to discuss further a theory that was based on such erroneous data, but as the data were not known to be erroneous, and Linant propounded his theory with an air of authority, it has had considerable success in getting itself accepted. Guide-books, and even books used as school text-books on Egyptian history, show that his theory has been hitherto judged the correct one.

It is, however, satisfactory to find that in the fifth edition (1890) of ‘Ancient Egypt’ by George Rawlinson (The Story of the Nations Series) the exact size and position of “Amenemhat’s reservoir” is admitted to be sub judice, and it would appear that this desirable attitude is the result of a challenge of Linant’s theory by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, who is reported as believing that the water was freely admitted into the whole of the depression (i.e. the Fayûm), which it filled, with the exception of certain parts, which stood up out of the water as islands from 150 to 200 feet high. Nevertheless, in spite of this new attitude towards the Linant theory, the map representing Linant’s Lake Mœris is to be found at the end of the book, without any remark to prevent readers from being misled by it, the map being described as “Map of the Fayoum, showing the Birket-el-Keroun and the artificial Lake Mœris.” ([Plate VII.] is from an earlier edition.)

The Linant theory, examined in the light of the more accurate knowledge gained of the physical features of the Fayûm, and tested by the application of figures to determine its possible performances, can no longer stand, but falls to pieces; and the wonder is that, based as it was upon erroneous data and propped up by no solid support of facts, it stood so long. It may be said of it, to the credit of its author, that it was ingenious, but not that it was true.

Since writing the foregoing concerning the Linant theory, Mr. Cope Whitehouse has kindly lent me his first papers on the subject, the earliest paper, that I had previously seen of his writings, being that which was read by him at the Manchester meeting of the British Association, September 2nd, 1887. I now find that he has been before me in stating many of the arguments I have used against the Linant lake theory, but it is satisfactory to find that we have independently arrived at the same conclusions, though by no means surprising, as I believe that any one, with the same amount of personal acquaintance with the Fayûm, would be naturally led to hold the same views of this fantastic theory. As early as 1882, Mr. Cope Whitehouse pointed out that the Linant lake satisfied none of the conditions which a lake professing to be Lake Mœris must satisfy, and he concluded one of his papers with a remark expressing his conviction that, when Lake Mœris shall be recognised by the light of discoveries yet to be made through further research, the site of the ancient lake will in no case be found to be that of the reservoir of M. Linant de Bellefonds Pasha.

Mr. Whitehouse, at the same time as he lent me his papers of 1882, also lent me a copy of Dr. G. Schweinfurth’s letter to Paul Ascherson on a journey undertaken in the depression of the Fayûm in January 1886, in which letter I find I am anticipated again in a footnote on this theory, which gives an argument not given by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, and runs as follows:—

“Here it must be mentioned that one of the most important points on which Linant grounds his Mœris theory is the Dams[4] which has proved quite fallacious. The dam at Adwa (Edwah) geology shows to be layers of gravel; the stone dam at Minia is, on the other hand, a weir for the Bahr-el-Wady, and is evidently throughout its whole length of later date. Besides, it fills up only the deep curves of the ground, and has no continuation on the rising grounds.”

Dr. Schweinfurth, as well as Mr. Whitehouse, had thus pointed out the weakness of the Linant theory, but still we find it living and taught as a true theory so late as 1890; and this is my excuse for repeating the arguments which have not yet succeeded in overwhelming it, notwithstanding its feebleness, so much support does it derive from its parent being a reputed authority.

But we have public acceptance of the Linant theory so late as 1892, and by so eminent an Egyptologist as Brugsch Pasha, who communicated his views to the Société Khédiviale de Géographie in a paper read in Cairo, on the 8th April, 1892, the title of the paper being “Le Lac Mœris d’après les monuments.” A quotation from this will show that he accepts the Linant theory.

“De nos jours, les traces visibles de cet immense bassin d’eau (le lac Mœris) ont disparu et les savants les plus distingués se sont en vain efforcés pendant longtemps de retrouver ses anciennes limites sur le sol moderne de la province du Fayoum.

“L’opinion la plus généralement acceptée au sujet de sa position a Linant pacha pour auteur. C’est lui qui, le premier, a rejeté l’idée de reconnaître le bassin du lac Mœris dans le Birket-el-Kouroun de nos jours, c’est-à-dire ‘le lac des Cornes,’ situé comme on sait, à l’ouest du Fayoum. Suivant les recherches très minutieuses de l’illustre savant, il faudrait, au contraire, se diriger vers le côté oriental de la province susnommée, et, notamment, vers les plateaux bien connus de Hawara et de El Lahoun, où deux pyramides construites à l’époque de la XII^me dynastie (vers 2500 a. J.C.) excitent encore la curiosité des voyageurs.

“H. Lepsius, mon savant compatriote qui, il y a presque cinquante ans, a eu l’occasion d’examiner sur les lieux les résultats obtenus par Linant pacha, n’a pas hésité à déclarer dans un Mémoire spécial que le savant français avait fait la découverte la plus brillante et la plus indubitable quant à la véritable position topographique du fameux lac Mœris. Les doutes qu’il exprima à la même occasion ne s’appliquaient qu’à l’extension du lac vers le nord.

“Depuis Linant et Lepsius, aucun savant sérieux, du nombre des géographes et des Égyptologues, ne s’est opposé à l’opinion émise par ces deux illustres auteurs.”

Apparently Brugsch Pasha does not class Dr. G. Schweinfurth, Mr. Flinders Petrie, and Mr. Cope Whitehouse as “savants sérieux,” for they have expressed themselves as opposed to the Linant theory. Lieut.-Colonel J. C. Ross, C.M.G., late Inspector-General of Irrigation, Egypt, justly renowned for his power of comprehension of the levels of any part of the country, which he studied professionally, at one time gave much of his attention to the Fayûm, and especially to that part which was known as Hod-el-Tuyûr, and which is the depression embraced in the area which Linant calls a plateau and in which he localised his supposed Lake Mœris. I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that Colonel Ross’s examination of the ground in question was much more thorough and more prolonged than that of M. Lepsius; but whereas the latter did not hesitate to accept Linant’s theory and to style it the most brilliant and certain discovery as regards the position of Lake Mœris, Colonel Ross on the contrary rejects Linant’s theory and thinks that the lake was north of the Edwah bank and not south of it.

Mr. Petrie has also clearly expressed the same views as Colonel Ross on this point.

I too have had advantages of studying the ground itself and the way the water runs, such as few have had, and have come in for the legacy of Colonel Ross’s levellings and maps.

The names of Linant and Lepsius do not therefore carry with them sufficient authority to override the facts, which are ascertained to be such by a more thorough examination of the country and a better knowledge of the physical features of the province.

Irrigation officers may, perhaps, not be classed as “savants,” but they have at least as much right to be heard as any other body of experts on such a subject as Lake Mœris, which is more than anything else an irrigation question, and one that has especial interest of a more or less practical nature at this time, when the question of the construction of Nile reservoirs for the storage of the surplus waters of the Nile is under consideration.

COPE WHITEHOUSE THEORY.

Mr. Cope Whitehouse, who has a personal acquaintance with the Fayûm, and has studied the question of Lake Mœris, though with a prejudice in favour of giving the Wadi Raiân a leading part, would possibly have been inclined to hold the same views as I do, had it not been for his anxiety to recommend the Wadi Raiân for future use by magnifying its imaginary past performances. But as his views about the Wadi Raiân are the essential and distinctive part of his theory, we do not agree.

For ten years Mr. Whitehouse has been brooding, as the faithfullest of mothers, over his theory, looking for a practical project to be hatched therefrom, but, as time passes, he begins to show signs of impatience, and fears lest his egg be addled. The possibilities as to what the chick may be when it appears, are set forth in Chapter V. of this paper, for I cannot but think that the egg is a good one.

Mr. Whitehouse believes that in prehistoric times, before artificial works of control were made, the Nile flowed into and submerged the whole Fayûm, which was filled at high Nile, and that when the flood subsided, the return flow, that took place from the Fayûm to the Nile, prolonged the period of inundation by at least two months. He also believes that the river flowed in a single channel along the eastern desert.

So far most of us who have our theories about the Fayûm travel together, with but small differences on the way. But after this our roads diverge, and each thinks the road he has selected leads to Lake Mœris. But they cannot all go there.

Leaving prehistoric times, and coming to the period of ancient history, Mr. Whitehouse holds that there were two lakes. At first the northern lake, the Fayûm, was a lake and marsh serving as a backwater to the Nile, while the southern, the Wadi Raiân, was dry. So far I agree with him, but now we part company. Subsequently, he imagines, engineers of an alien race diverted the flood waters into the dry Wadi Raiân to the south-west and evaporation dried up the Fayûm, which was then irrigated by a system of canals. The Wadi Raiân basin becoming, full served as a reservoir, and was, according to Mr. Whitehouse, the “Mœridis Lacus” of Ptolemy.

Later on, in 1890, Mr. Whitehouse explains his views in terms which are not quite in agreement with the foregoing, for he then supposes that the natural backwater of the Nile included the Fayûm and Wadi Raiân (with its minor basins Wadis “Safir” and “Lulu”) at one and the same time, and that these combined basins were filled to the level of high Nile, which he puts at R.L. 30·00.