of the
Nile divided the plain at intervals into a series of artificial basins,
where the overflow formed back-waters at the time of inundation. These
dikes are generally earth-works, though they are sometimes constructed of
baked brick, as in the province of Girgeh. Very rarely are they built of
hewn stone, like that great dike of Kosheish which was constructed by Mena
in primaeval times, in order to divert the course of the Nile from the spot
on which he founded Memphis.[7] The network of canals began near Silsilis
and extended to the sea-board, without ever losing touch of the river, save
at one spot near Beni Suef, where it throws out a branch in the direction
of the Fayum. Here, through a narrow and sinuous gorge, deepened probably
by the hand of man, it passes the rocky barrier which divides that low-
lying province from the valley of the Nile, and thence expands into a
fanlike ramification of innumerable channels. Having thus irrigated the
district, the waters flow out again; those nearest the Nile returning by
the same way that they flowed in, while the rest form a series of lakes,
the largest of which is known as the Birket el Kurun. If we are to believe
Herodotus, the work was not so simply done. A king, named Moeris, desired
to create a reservoir in the Fayum which should neutralise the evil effects
of insufficient or superabundant inundations. This reservoir was named,
after him, Lake Moeris. If the supply fell below the average, then the
stored waters were let loose, and Lower Egypt and the Western Delta were
flooded to the needful height. If next year the inundation came down in too
great force, Lake Moeris received and stored the surplus till such time as
the waters began to subside. Two pyramids, each surmounted by a sitting
colossus, one representing the king and the other his queen, were erected
in the midst of the lake. Such is the tale told by Herodotus, and it is a
tale which has considerably embarrassed our modern engineers and
topographers. How, in fact, was it possible to find in the Fayum a site
which could have contained a basin measuring at least ninety miles in
circumference? Linant supposed "Lake Moeris" to have extended over the
whole of the low-lying land which skirts the Libyan cliffs between Illahun
and Medinet el Fayum; but recent explorations have proved that the dikes by
which this pretended reservoir was bounded are modern works, erected
probably within the last two hundred years. Major