The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-21
RESERVOIRS IN EGYPT
Where Water of Nile is Stored for Use
 in Dry Season.

in Dry Season.
 Diodorus, Strabo and Herodotus have
 independently borne witness to a vast artificial lake, or reservoir. which was
 constructed to receive the superfluous
 water from the Nile at flood time, and
 to distribute it when and where re-
 quired by means of canals. The latter
 writer is enthusiastic in his admiration
 of the work. which he classes far above
 the mighty pyramid of Cheors as an
 example of the triumph of human skill and labor over natural obstacles. This lake-Moeris-was dug by the orders
 of King Amenemhat III, who lived
 about 2000 B. c. It had a superficial
 area of $50 square miles-about the size
 of an average English county-with a
 depth in places of 300 feet, and it's con
 tour measured 450 miles. It was con-
 nected to the Nile by canal ten miles
 long and 800 feet wide, controlled by
 means of sluices which served to draw off the surplus water from the river and return it at periods of low water.
 AS all who have followed the recent history of Egypt will know, the site of
 the ancient lake has been identified be- yond doubt with the present province
 known as the Fayoum by Cope White house, whose researches have not only
 abundantly justified the classical his torians, but have had a most direct bearing upon the problem of the irri-
 gation Of Egypt at the present day.
 The canal to the Nile had become silted up during centuries of neglect, and the
 lake had vanished but the depression remained, as a fertile valley in the des- ert
 In seeking for a reservoir for the
 supply of Egypt during the dry season, it is not to be wondered at that the reconstruction of the ancient Lake of
 Moeris should have been carefully con- sidered. As, however, in the bed Of the
 lake is, a fertile province, with a culti-
 vable area of 100000 acres and a value
 of GS0OOO,OOO, it's construction on its original site is out of the question, but there exists a smaller depression in the Libyan hills immediately to the south | to which no such objections apply This depression is known as the Wady Ra-
 van, and Cope Whitehouse, the discoV- erer of Lake Moeris, has for many years insisted that in turning the Wady l Rayan into an artificial lake or reser- voir lies the true solution of the prob lem of Egypt's water. supply. Its area at a level of 29 metres above that of the sea would be about 700 square kilo-
 metres, or 270 square miles. When full, | -A its greatest depth would be 70 metres, though only the upper four or five me tres would be used annually, giving a I possible supply of some three milliards of cubic metres out of a total contents of twenty miIliards. Such lake, how ever, would have one great drawback Although during the month of April it would give plentiful discharge, by the end of May it's level would have so
 diminished that it could not meet half the demand upon it for water, and f fortnight later it would be practically useless, as it's level would have sunk approximately to that of the Nile. For this reason, by itself 1t would be.inade- quate, but, fortunately, we have at hands means of contributing to the summer supply from another source. 1 The Assouan reservoir, owing to it's height, can be drawn from at any sea-
 son of the year, and it is proposed by Sir w. Wilcocks to raise the dam by six metres, making it the height origi-
 nally intended, and use the water so stored to supplant the. Wady Rayan discharge through the simmer. The i Assouan reservoir would, when raised, yield a supply of two milliards of cubic
 metres, and this would not be drawn
 upon until some time during May. As the summer came on the proposition of
 water from the Assouan would increase
 until in July it woull be giving practi-
 cally the whole supply, Working to- gether in this manner the lake and the reservoir would provide the whole of the water needed for the irrigation of
 Egypt.-London Engineering.