The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-03-28
Lake M Gris.


The welfare of Egypt depends on the
annual inundation of the Nile. A very
low inundation causes famine, a very
high one is a disastrous flood, and it is
not seldom that the utmost level of the
river little exceeds that which portends
famine, or falls little shortof the scarcely
less fatal food-height. There are, more
over, many tracts in Egypt which the
inundation never reaches unless the
water is raised by artificial means, and
by such means the inundated lands may
again be irrigated so as to produce a
second and third harvest. Thus the regu-
lation of the inundation, the construction
of canals and reservoirs, are the main
methods of benefting Egypt, naturally
an agricultural country.
1t was to these objects that the Kings
of the Twelfth Dynasty turned the force
of the nation. Most of all, Amenemhat
III executed the greatest ancient work OF
engineering skill, the most useful one to
the country ever carried out in Egypt,
the Lake Meris. About seventy miles,
measured on the course of the river, to
the south of Cairo, the low edge of the
western desert opens and forms the en-
trance to an oasis, fertilized by the wa
ters of the Nile, which are conducted
into it by canal having many branches,
and which finally empties itself into a
great inland lake. As we now see this
oasis, the Feiyoom, we observe that much
of its soil isunwatered and unproductiye,
though marked by the signs of ancient
plenty.
This is because the great hydraulic
work of Amenemhat has been allowed,
since the Moslcm rule of Egypt, to fall
into decay and ultimately to disappear,
1t was only in the present century that
its remains were discovered, and its true
site fixed, by NJ. Linant, French engi-
neer, to whose surveys we also owe the
excellent map of Egypt published in
Lepsius's "Denkmaler." The Lake
M@ris lay in the southeast of the Fei.
yoom. 1t was bounded on the south and
cast by the natural elevated edge of the
oasis, on the other sides by great dikes
which may still be traced. Itsshape was
thus irregular, but some idea may be
formed of its size from the fact that had
it been square each side would have
measured about twelve miles.
Evidently the construction of this vast
work was aided by the natural shape OF
the country, and it is possible that il
needed but little excavation; yet the
construction of the dikes of the strength
necessary to keep vast body of water
from falling into the lower level to the
northwest must have been work of pro
digious labor. The object of the lake
was to receive the waters of the Nile and
convey them as it became desirable ovel
the county around. 1t was also turned
to good account as a fish-preservc. NJ
Linant, the discoverer of the Lake M9ris
argued strongly in favor of its restora
ton. Thiswould involve the destruction
OF three or four villages, and the loss O
about 10000 feddans, or somewhat mor'
than as many acres, while it would i'm
mediately render cultivable 100000 Il
SOC, 600 feddans, space equal to quar-
ter of the land in Egypt now under cul
tivation.
Yet more. this vast reservoir woult
serve as q valuable means of drawing OF
the waters of the excessive inundation
and emptying them into the Lake o
| El-karn AT the northwestern extremit,
of the Feiyoom. II would thus modif,
the dangerous effects of the highest inuu
dations, and this much might, indeed, b
effected by existing canals and sluice
which was used for this purpose after tn
Lake Meris had disappeared. The sim
pie work of restoration upon the ancien
lines has not the snowy pretensions O
other modern projects, but it would fla
more benefit Egypt by producing result
/ which would form means of measurin
r the far-sighted policy of the old Kin
Amenemhat, who, we may hope, is actl
ally commemorated by his great worl
the name Meris being possibly derive
from his pr@nomen.