“Thus the Lake of Mœris is, from its size and depth, capable of receiving the overflow of the Nile at its rising, and preventing the flooding of houses and gardens; when the river falls, the lake again discharges the water by a canal at both mouths, and it is available for irrigation. There are regulators at both ends for controlling the inflow and outflow.” Diodorus Siculus, writing at the same time, says:--“King Mœris dug a lake which is amazingly useful and incredibly large. For as the rising of the Nile is irregular, and the fertility of the country depends on its uniformity, he dug the lake for the reception of the superfluous water, and he constructed a canal from the river to the lake 80 furlongs in length and 300 feet in breadth. Through this he admitted or let out the water as required.” At one time there was much discussion as to what was Lake Mœris, but since the publication of Sir Hanbury’s book there can be but one opinion. The lake covered the whole of the modern Fayoum below the level of the contour which is 22¹⁄₂ metres above mean sea level. The common Nile shells are to be met in myriads at any point on this contour round the Fayoum that one cares to look for them. The ordinary high flood level of Kushesha basin to-day is 26¹⁄₂ metres above mean sea. In Amenemhat’s time, which was 4,000 years ago, the level was 4 metres lower, or at 22¹⁄₂ metres above mean sea. This was the highest possible level the lake could have attained in his day. In the course of time the level of the Nile valley rose by about 10 centimetres per century, but the frequent occasions on which the canal was kept closed during poor and low floods gradually silted up the channel and made it less capacious. As there are no Nile shells above the contour of 22¹⁄₂ metres above mean sea (except a few on the south side of the lake which have evidently been blown up by the north west winds in sand drifts) it is evident that the gradual silting up of the channel more than kept pace with the rising level of the Nile. Eventually the silting up exceeded the rise, and that at an accelerated rate, the canal became weaker and weaker, and the Fayoum Province gradually occupied the site of the lake. Lake Mœris had lasted over 2,000 years. The connection between the Nile and the germ of the future Lake Mœris was in existence in King Menes’s time, as I have been informed by professor Sayce, but it was King Amenemhat, of the XIIth dynasty, who widened and deepened the canal, cleared away the rocky barriers, and converted the trifling lake of King Menes’s time into the mighty inland sea which controlled the highest floods of the Nile. Those ancient Pharaohs were giants in hydraulic engineering. They were, moreover, as wise as they were courageous.