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)
The part A _b_ of one of these suggested banks exists to-day, as
a lately abandoned basin bank, with regulators in it, but there
is nothing, that I know of, to show that it existed in the time of
Lake Mœris. At the western desert end, _a_, of the supposed bank,
stands the village Tamma. Dr. Schweinfurth says this is certainly
an ancient Egyptian name, and he describes some remarkable mounds
of pure black Nile earth, containing no trace of bricks, sherds,
stones from buildings, or other things, which lie just to the south
of the modern village in four symmetrically placed hills, containing
about 300,000 cubic metres.
Possibly the ancient Tamma was in some way connected with Lake Mœris,
but the riddle of the mounds has not yet been solved. They appeared
to me to be the remains of the mouth of a canal taking off from a
bend of the Bahr Yûsuf, but the great height and contour of the
mounds and the abruptness with which they commence and terminate
are not to be easily accounted for. The alignment of the canal,
if such it was, points towards the entrance valley to the Fayûm.
On the east of Lahûn village there are also some mounds of moderate
height, but of short length, which are evidently the remains of two
old parallel canals, both pointing in the direction of the Fayûm. The
abruptness with which these banks begin and end is also remarkable.
Supposing then, that the Nile levels in the time of Herodotus were
2 metres lower than those of to-day, the conception of Lake Mœris
must be modified as follows:—
The lowest level to which Lake Mœris fell in summer was R.L. 17·50
above mean sea, and it was filled to levels ranging between
R.L. 20·50 and 22·50, but its level was never allowed to exceed
the latter level. Probably there was a regulator and bank passing
through Lahûn from west to east between the main and detached
desert preventing the flow of the Bahr Yûsuf waters to the north,
and so diverting them into Lake Mœris; and also another regulator
at Hawârah to forbid the admission of an excessive volume into the
lake (Plate XXI.). On each side of this latter regulator may have
been sluices, on the right to feed a canal to irrigate during flood
time the high land, between Hawârah pyramid and the present railway
line, along the course of the old Bahr Wardan; and on the left to
admit water into the reclaimed tract round about Crocodilopolis,
perhaps along the present course of the Bahr Yûsuf, for irrigation
and navigation.
The old Edwah-Biahmu-Sinrû bank, instead of having been formed in
water, would have been thrown up along the edge of the water when at
its lowest level. The Biahmu landing-place would have been projected
into the lake to obtain a quay for embarkation and disembarkation
and possibly a channel would have been dug between the two colossi,
so that boats might come alongside even at low water; a channel
about 2 metres deep being sufficient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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