Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-11-16
CANAL BUILT BY JOSEPH.
One Of the Worlds Oldest Engineering
Works

One Of the Worlds Oldest Engineering
Works
How many Of tho engineering
works jof the nineteenth century win
there be in existence in The year G00O?
asks Engineering Very few, we fear,
and still less those that will contnse
in that far-of age to serve useful
purpose. Yet there is, at leasct, one
great undertaking conceived and OK
ecuted by an engineer which during
the space Of 1000 years has never
ceased its Office, on which the life of a
fertile province absolutely depends to-
day. We refer to the Bahr Jonssuf---
the Canal of Joseph--built, accord
ing to tradition, by the son of Jacob,
land which constitutes not the least
Of the many blessings he conferred
on Egypt during the years of his pros
porous rule. This canal took its rise
from the Nile at Asiut, and ran al
most parallel with it for nearly $50
miles, creeping along under the west
ern cliffs Of the Nile valley, with many
bend and winding, until at length
il gained an cminence, as compared
with the river bed, which enabled it
TO turn westward through a narrow
pass and enter desert which was
otherwise shut off from the fertilizing
floods on which all vegetation in
Egypt depends. 1.-The northern end
stood II feet abovclow Nile, while at
the southern end it was at an equal
elevation with the river Through
this cut ran a perennial stream, which
waiered a province named Fayoum,
endowing It with fertility and sup
porting a large population IN the
time Of the'annual food a great part
lof the canal was under water, and
then the rivers current would rush in
more direct course into the pass, car
rying with it the rich silt which fakes
the place of manure and keeps the soil
in a constant state of productiyeness.
All this, with the exception of the
tradition that Joseph built it, can be
verified to-day, and it is not mere sup
position or rumor. Until eight years
ago it was firmly believed that the de-
sign has always been limited to an ir-
rigatiou scheme, larger, no doubt,
than that now in operation, as shown
| bv the traces of abandoned canals,
and by the slow aggregation of waste
water which had accumulated in the
Birket cl Quorum, but still essential
ly the same in character. Many ac-
counts have been written by Greek
and Roman historians, such as
Herodotus, Strabo, Mutianus and
Pliny, and repeated in monkish le-
gends or portrayed in the maps of the
Middle Ages, which agreed with the
folklore of the district These tales
explained that the canal dug by the
ancient Israeltes served to carry the
surplus waters of the Nile into an ex-
tensive lake lying south of the Fay
cum, and so large that it not only
modified the climate, tempering the
arid waters of the desert and convert
ing them into the balmy airs which
nourish the vines and the olives into
a fullness and fragrance unknown in
any part of the country, but also added
to the food supply of the land snch i'm
mcnse quantities Of fish that the royal
prerogative of the right Of piscary at
the great weir was valued at f250,00Q
annually. This lake was said to be
$50 miles round, and to be navigated
by fleet of vessels, and the whole
circumference was the scene of in