1084 Appendix IL: Phytogeography and Geology. 
b) The Fayam (N. f.)'). 
The Fayim, a large circular depression in the Libyan Desert, 
is situated immediately west of that part of the Nile Valley lying 
between Kafr-el-Ayat and Feshn. The depression, which has an 
area, roughly speaking, of 12000 square kilometres, is primarily 
divisible into three distinct parts: cultivated, lake, and desert. The 
cultivated land has an area of about 1800 square kilometres and, 
with the exception of the lake and part of the Wady Rayan, occupies 
the lowest part of the depression. Cultivation is necessarily strictly 
limited to the area covered with alluvial soil. The cultivated land 
of the Fayim is directly connected with that of the Nile Valley by 
a narrow strip of low ground, a natural passage through the desert 
separating the Nile Valley and the depression of the Fayim. Through 
this gap runs the natural canal known as the Bahr Yussuf, which is 
practically the sole source of water in the Faytim and irrigates the 
entire district”). 
The cultivated land of the Fayim is traversed by two main 
ravines, cut down in many places to the Eocene limestone below 
the alluvium. At the present time these ravines carry canals for 
irrigating the lower parts of the district, and also act largely as 
drains to the higher lands. In addition to the main central cultivated 
area, the soil of which, as mentioned above, is essentially identical 
with that of the Nile Valley, large tracts of the surrounding counntry, 
more especially on the north, north-west, and west sides, are also 
covered with alluvial deposits. These latter, which include sands, 
sandy clays, and clays of a quite distinct type, represent the slowly 
formed accumulations of the quieter and more remote parts of the 
acient Lake Moeris. ‘The material was mostly derived from the 
Kocene strata which formed the shores of the lake, augmented 
no doubt by a certain amount of very fine sediment drifted from the 
Bahr Yussuf, and by sand blown in by wind. The construction 
during recent years of extensive irrigation works in the Nile Valley 
has made it possible to largely augment the water-supply of the 
Bahr Yussuf to the Fayim. High level canals are being cut in 
various parts of the district and abready large areas of desert covered 
by these lacustrine deposits have been brought under cultivation, 
notably to the north of Tamia and in the neighbourhood of Qasr 
Qurtn. 
The lowest part of the depression, lying immediately to the 
north-west of the cultivation, is occupied by a sheet of water of 
') H. 1. L. Beadnell: The Topography and Geology of the Fayim 
Province of Egypt. — Cairo 1905. 
2) Sir Hanbury Brown: The Fayim and the Lake Moeris. — London 1892. 
