Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-08
TWENTIETH CENTURY EGYPT
ZX-Arresting the Tears of isis
By Frederic j. Haskin

a. somewhat precarious existence DUR
ing inundation If the water reaches
the huts, they crumble like mud pies
dipped in q duck pond, and the homes
become a mass of muck. The 1ellaheeh
and their livestock live throughout the
flood period upon bits of high ground
and the dikes, which form their roads.
Goats, sheep, water buffaloes, camels,
little donkeys hardly larger than great
Danes, horses and human beings are
herded in narrow spaces of solid earth.
White winged aquatic birds claim the
lakes as their own. Rats from the
marshes infest the dikes and villages,
and are protected from attack by a
curious superstition of the fellaheen,
according to which the rats, as the flood
recedes. turn to balls of fertile mud, to
play a part in producing crops.
Basin irrigation reached high devel-
opment under the Romans and stream
of grain from the whole Nile valley
and the delta flowed through Alexan-
dria to the ports of the Mediterranean.
After the Arab conquest there followed
ten or eleven centuries of neglect, Which
caused an enormous decrease in culti-
vable area, and proportional decrease
in population. While the claim that
there were II, 900 inhabitants of the
country when the Arabs conquered 1t is
QOuDUleSS an eXdBB5FdllOH, IL - l4uS
that the beginning of the nineteenth
century found Egypt reduced In popula-
tion to about 100000 and despoiled by
shiftlessness of a great deal of match
less farming land. At present more
than 100000 acres of land which pro-
duced crops during the Roman occu-
patton now lie under the so-called
great lakes" of the delta or are un-
cultivable salt marshes. Where the
vineyards, palm groves and wheat
fields once smiled beneath the sun, great
salty lagoons now form a home for
water fowl The sites of Tinnis, Tunah
and other manufacturing cities are un-
der the sloughs.
The retreat of agriculture southwark
as a result of the overflow of a part of
the delta was followed in time by an
increase of tillable area farther up the
Mile, due to perennial irrigation. Vice
roy Mehemet Ali, man of great imag-
nation and ambition, but rather lack
ing in fixednesS of purpose, is given
credit for having introduced the idea
of perennial irrigation, and for having
planned and dreamed of such a struc-
ture as the Assouan dam, but his dream
British business methods were applied
to the solution Of Egypt's problem.
Viceroy Mehemet Ali is best remem-
bered as the Albanian tobacconist who
was sent to rule Egypt century ago,
andSwho, after numbering the Name
lukes and performing other and more
creditable feats, attempted to make
conquest of the Ottoman empire. In
addition to his ambition to Become sui
tan of Turkey, the Albanian desired to
become the father of scientific irriga-
ton in Egypt. Although Great Britain
dealt his army a death blow at Acre,
1t a. ~ he.
did found a dynasty in Egypt. His net
results as an irrigator were less sig
nificant Realizing that cotton and
sugar cane culture would be possible
in Egypt under a system of perennial
irrigation, the despot leveled the basin
dikes, using the enforced and unpaid
labor of the fellaheen, and attempted
a storage system to provide for apply
ing water to the crops the year round.
Sultan Hassan robbed the pyramid of
Cheops OF it's marble casing to build a
mosque in his own honor, and was ex-
ecrated by the civilized world. Me-
hemet All, who ordered the pyramid
razed to provide stone for delta bar
rage. was saved from similar fate by
the quick wit of a French engineer.
who told him that 1t would be cheaper
to open a quarry. He finally neglected
the barrage and never builded the res
erVoir. His successors made little
progress with the irrigation proiect-
The Assouan, or Aswan, dam as an
engineering feat is the greatest land
mark of progress in Egypt. AS bride
for the Nile 1t has proved altogether
successful Its construction was
financed by London capitalists, Egypt
agreeing to pay for 1t in installments,
after it's completion. 1t was expected
that the cost with interest, would be
$25.O00000 to the Egyptian government.
Because of unexpected conditions in the
river bed an additional expense of 10
per cent of the estimate was incurred.
Work is now in progress to raise the
dam about twenty-three feet. This will
increase its storage canacity two and
one-fourth times. The cost will be
H,500,000, and 100000 acres of land now
useless will become fertile. This land
will be worth from 500 to $125 an acre.
This gigantic dam, impounding a bill
lion tons of "the tears of Isis" as they
flow, is pointed to by Englishmen as
proof that England is the greatest
builder the Nile valley has known, and
that the twentieth centurv has pro-
duced the greatest of Egypt's monu-
ments.
Copyright 1909. by Frederic j. Haskin)
TOmorrow-Twentieth Century Egypt.
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