e
season of the year. It formerly occupied a much larger area than it does
at present, and half of the surrounding districts was covered by it.
Its northern shores, now deserted and uncultivated, then shared in the
benefits of the inundation, and supplied the means of existence for
a civilized population. In many places we still find the remains of
villages, and walls of uncemented stone; a small temple even has
escaped the general ruin, and remains almost intact in the midst of the
desolation, as if to point out the furthest limit of Egyptian territory.

[Illustration: 392.jpg THE SHORES OF THE BIRKET-KERUN NEAR THE
EMBOUCHURE OF THE WADY NAZLEH]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Golenischeff.

It bears no inscriptions, but the beauty of the materials of which it
is composed, and the perfection of the work, lead us to attribute its
construction to some prince of the XIIth dynasty. An ancient causeway
runs from its entrance to what was probably at one time the original
margin of the lake. The continual sinking of the level of the Birkeh
has left this temple isolated on the edge of the Libyan plateau, and
all life has retired from the surrounding district, and has concentrated
itself on the southern shores of the lake.

[Illustration: 393.jpg THE TWO PYRAMIDS OF THE XIITH DYNASTY AT LISHT]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

Here the banks are low and the bottom deepens almost imperceptibly. In
winter the retreating waters leave exposed long patches of the shore,
upon which a thin crust of snow-white salt is deposited, concealing the
depths of mud and quicksands beneath. Immediately after the inundation,
the lake regains in a few days the ground it had lost: it encroaches
on the tamarisk bushes which fringe its banks, and the district is soon
surrounded by a belt of marshy vegetation, affording cover for ducks,
pelicans, wild geese, and a score of different kinds of birds which
disport themselves there by the thousand. The Pharaohs, when tired of
residing in cities, here found varied and refreshing scenery, an equable
climate, gardens always gay with flowers, and in the thickets of the
Kerun they could pursue their favourite pastimes of interminable fishing
and of hunting with the boomerang.

They desired to repose after death among the scenes in which they had
lived. Their tombs stretch from Heracleo-polis till they nearly meet the
last pyramids of the Memphites: at Dahshur