The Fayûm and Lake MœrisBrown, R. H. (Robert Hanbury)
History
The Fayûm and Lake Mœris
Brown, R. H. (Robert Hanbury)
Fayyum (Egypt) -- Description and travel; Moeris, Lake (Egypt)
To show with what unfairness Linant deals with statements made by
Herodotus, his arguments about the bricks made for the pyramid built
by Asychis may be noted. It was stated that the bricks were made
from mud brought up from the bottom of the lake. Linant claims this
statement as supporting his theory, as his lake was a shallow one,
and as opposing the enlarged Lake Qurûn theory, as this latter would
be a deep one. It does not seem to strike him that the workmen could
have sought their mud along the shallow margins of the larger lake. He
further argues that one could not reach down more than 4 metres with
poles, and therefore the lake could not have been so deep as stated
by Herodotus, and hence Herodotus contradicts himself! But Herodotus
did not say that the lake was 92 metres deep all over, and that its
shores were not shallow, but that its _greatest_ depth was 92 metres.
Linant Pasha discussed the possibility of the submerged Fayûm
being the Lake Mœris, but rejected the idea, because, to fulfil
the condition of supplementing the low Nile, the water must have
covered the second plateau, and risen to a level above the rock
sill at Hawârah (R.L. 21·00). “Then,” he points out, “the
whole Fayûm would have been only a vast lake and with a height of
water impossible to reconcile with the existence of large towns,
which formed the rich Crocodilopolite or Arsinoïte nomes. The
great quantity of ruined towns, abandoned like Medinet-el-Mahdi,
Medinet-el-Hêb, Medinet Nemroud, Kasr Keroun, indicate, as well
as those which still exist, as Sanuris, Sanhur and all the others,
that this part has never been under water, and they date from the
time of Lake Mœris and of Crocodilopolis.” (Earlier in his book he
states about Kasr Keroun, “Kasr Keroun is a little monument, quite
modern as compared with the epoch of the Labyrinth.” Mr. Petrie
and Dr. Schweinfurth both state that Qasr Qurûn is a Roman temple
or town.) M. Linant continues, “If ever the Fayûm has been under
water, as we have supposed it, it was long before it was habitable
and before the Lake Mœris existed.”
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
OLD BUILDING ON NORTH SIDE OF LAKE QURÛN,
DISCOVERED BY DR. SCHWEINFURTH IN 1884. EXTERIOR FROM NORTH-EAST.]
Now as regards the modern villages of Sanûris, Sanhûr, and others,
I am not aware on what evidence M. Linant states that they existed
at the same time as Lake Mœris. As regards the old abandoned towns
mentioned, some of them are on elevated spots, and probably were
on the shores of Lake Mœris. When Lake Mœris declined and the
water had receded to a distance from them, they were abandoned for
more favourable sites, less remote from a water supply and water
transport. Probably Sanûris and Sanhûr, and the other villages on
the edge of the second plateau, are the successors in time of the
ancient elevated towns mentioned as ruined and abandoned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account