THE FAYÛM
AND LAKE MŒRIS.
[Illustration: _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.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I.
THE FAYÛM OF TO-DAY 5
CHAPTER II.
ANCIENT TESTIMONY ABOUT LAKE MŒRIS 19
CHAPTER III.
THEORIES AS TO WHERE AND WHAT LAKE MŒRIS WAS 25
GENERAL REMARKS, 25 — LINANT THEORY, 28 — COPE WHITEHOUSE
THEORY, 40 — LINANT’S OBJECTIONS TO THEORY FAVOURED, 48 —
W. M. F. PETRIE’S VIEWS, 56
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORY OF THE FAYÛM PROVINCE 61
THE FAYÛM BEFORE LAKE MŒRIS, 61 — THE FAYÛM AS LAKE
MŒRIS, 69 — TRANSFORMATION OF LAKE MŒRIS TO THE FAYÛM
OF TO-DAY, 94
CHAPTER V.
THE FAYÛM IN THE FUTURE, AND POSSIBLE UTILISATION OF
THE WADI RAIÂN 105
LIST OF PLATES.
* * * * *
PLATE PAGE
Old Lahûn Regulator. _From a Photograph taken by the
Author._ _Frontispiece_
I. The Bahr Yûsuf skirting the Libyan Desert. _From a
Photograph taken by the Author_ _To face_ 9
II. Bazar Street Bridge, Medinet-el-Fayûm. _From a
Photograph taken by the Author_ _To face_ 11
III. Tunnel on Bahr Yûsuf. _From a Photograph taken by
the Author._ _To face_ 13
IV. Water-wheels on Canal Tamîyah. _From a Photograph
taken by the Author_ _To face_ 15
V. Diagrams of two kinds of Water-wheels 15
VI. Nasbah Mitertaris. _From a Photograph taken by
the Author_ _To face_ 17
VII. Map showing the “Linant” Lake Mœris 29
VIII. Section of the Fayûm through the Linant Lake 31
IX. Diagram to scale showing Outline of Linant Lake 33
X. Cross sections of Minia Wall and Edwah Bank 35
XI. Linant’s and actual Sections of the Fayûm 36
XII. Part of Egypt from Map of Cl. Ptolemy 45
XIII. Proposed Wadi Raiân Reservoir 46
XIV. Exterior, Schweinfurth’s “Temple.” _From a Photograph
taken by the Author_ _To face_ 51
XV. Interior, Ditto. _From a Photograph taken by the
Author_ _To face_ 53
XVI. Ground plan, Ditto 53
XVII. Medinet-el-Fayûm. _From a Photograph taken by the
Author_ _To face_ 57
XVIII. Cross section of 50 miles on lat. 30° 63
XIX. Contoured Diagram of the Fayûm Depression 65
XX. Map of Lake Mœris 73
XXI. Map to show position of Edwah Bank and supposed Lake
Mœris Regulators 75
XXII. Biahmu Ruins. _From a Photograph taken by the Author_
_To face_ 77
XXIII. Restoration of Biahmu Ruins by Petrie 84
XXIV. Modified representation of Biahmu Ruins Restored 86
XXV. Sections of Bahr Yûsuf Valley and Ravine behind
Hawârat-el-Maqta 98
XXVI. Sketch Map of the ground between Hawârat-el-Maqta and
Hawârah Pyramid 100
XXVII. Sections of Lahûn Banks 103
Map of the Fayûm Province End of Book
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—
(1) Before it became Lake Mœris.
(2) As Lake Mœris.
(3) While it was undergoing the process of being transformed from
Lake Mœris to what it is to-day.
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.
1 metre = 3·2809 feet.
1 square metre = 10·7643 square feet.
1 cubic metre = 35·3166 cubic feet.
= 220·097 gallons.
8 kilometres = 5 miles (approximately).
Discharges are given as so many cubic metres per day of 24 hours.
1,000,000 cubic metres a day = 11·5741 cubic metres per second.
= 408·9775 cubic feet per second.
Areas are given in feddans, which is the Egyptian acre.
1 feddan = 4200·8333 square metres.
= 1·038 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.
Year. Metres below Sea. Fall.
1885 39·80
1886 40·00 ·20
1887 40·38 ·38
1888 40·73 ·35
1889 41·17 ·44
1890 42·00 ·83
1891 42·78 ·78
1892 43·32 ·54
----
Total fall from 1st March, 1885, to 1st March, 1892 3·52 metres
----
Yearly average ·50 nearly.
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:—
--+----------------+---------------+-----------+----------------+--
| Date. | Level of Lake.| Fall in | Daily Average. |
| | R.L. | 30 Days. | |
+----------------+---------------+-----------+----------------+
|1st June, 1889 | - 41·63 | | |
| | | | |
|1st July „ | - 41·87 | ·24 | ·008 |
| | | | |
|31st July „ | - 42·11 | ·24 | ·008 |
| | | | |
|1st June, 1890 | - 42·38 | | |
| | | | |
|1st July „ | - 42·66 | ·28 | ·0093 |
| | | | |
|31st July „ | - 42·89 | ·24 | ·008 |
--+----------------+---------------+-----------+----------------+--
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:—
R.L.
On 14th March, 1890, the lake level was - 42·00
On 18th September, 1890 „ - 43·13
-----
The fall in 188 days was therefore 1·13
-----
Giving a daily average of ·006
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:—
Metres.
January ·071
February ·074
March ·172
April ·193
May ·252
June ·299 }
} Average per diem
July ·370 } for three hottest
} months, ·0107.
August ·310 }
September ·226
October ·179
November ·120
December ·098
-----
Total 2·364 metres per annum.
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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:—
--+--------------+--------------+----------------+------------------+--
| | Below Derût. | Above New | Below Old Bridge |
| | | Bridge, Lahûn. | on Fayûm Side. |
| +--------------+----------------+------------------+
| Flood season | 46·75 | 26·50 | 23·90 |
| | | | |
| Winter | 43·00 | 24·14 | 23·15 |
| | | | |
| Summer | 42·15 | 22·90 | 22·50 |
| | | | |
| Maximum | 46·95 | 27·80 | 23·90 |
| | | | |
| Minimum | 41·67 | 22·50 | 22·27 |
--+--------------+--------------+----------------+------------------+--
_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.
[Illustration: 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_.
[Illustration: 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.]
[Illustration: PLATE V.
UNDERSHOT WHEEL FOR RAISING WATER.
Scale ¹⁄₅₀. From Willcocks’ ‘Egyptian Irrigation.’]
[Illustration: 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 810_l._ (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.
[Illustration: 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
Ushuri lands 131,155 feddans.
Kharagi „ 102,146 „
-------
Total 233,301 „
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 11_s._ 2¾_d._ 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.
--+-------------+---------+---------+-----------+--
| | 1889. | 1890. | 1891. |
+-------------+---------+---------+-----------+
|Cotton | 39,433 | 56,334 | 86,638 |
| | | | |
|Cotton-seed | 82,010 | 104,608 | 185,917 |
| | | | |
|Cereals | 418,935 | 797,363 | 1,109,070 |
--+-------------+---------+---------+-----------+--
The value of the exports in 1891 was not less than that given in
the following calculation:—
Kantars. Piastres. L.E.
Cotton 86,638 at 170 = 147,284
Cotton-seed 185,917 at 55 = 102,254
Cereals 1,109,070 at 70 = 776,349
---------
Total = 1,025,887
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 (4_l._ 6_s._ 10_d._
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.