74 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



giving it the appearance of a much larger river. The 

 odd native boats may be seen at any landing. 



The devices for lifting water are numerous along 

 both banks. The shadouf is the most common because 

 of the simplicity of its construction. The native is 

 justly proud of his contrivance for raising water. Each 

 machine raises water about 6 feet. I have seen as 

 many as five lifts before the water was finally poured 

 into the distributing channel on the bank. Sometimes 

 the shadouf has but one lift. Often two men work 

 together, one on the right and one on the left. The 

 sakiyeh or Persian wheel is owned by the aristocratic 

 native farmer. It costs about $125 on an average and 

 two or three oxen are necessary before one can be oper- 

 ated successfully. Many large steam pumping plants 

 may be seen along the river. Some of these have been 

 erected on scows and go from place to place as the 

 demand for water necessitates. Probably one of the 

 largest canals in Egypt is the Yusef, which furnishes 

 water for the Fayum Province. It is 180 feet wide 

 and 30 feet deep and carries 30,000 cubic feet of water 

 per second during flood season. This is a larger volume 

 than the maximum discharge of the North Platte River. 



PLOWING. 



The Yusef Canal has many branches after reaching the 

 province. Many of the basin canals have no head works 

 but simply depend upon earthen dams thrown across 

 the channel near the river. When the water reaches a 

 certain stage the dams are broken and the basins fill 

 forthwith. 



The town of Assuan, 580 miles south of Cairo, is 

 nearly on the southern border of Egypt. It is located on 

 the east bank of the river, just below the first cataract. 

 The island of Elephantine lies opposite in the river 

 and the island of Philae is 4 or 5 miles up stream, just 

 above the cataract. The granite formation of the first 

 cataract appears just south of Assuan. The Egyptian 

 railway ends at Shellel, opposite the island of Philae. 

 The island contains a number of temples of the Ptole- 

 maic period, the foundations of which are being strength- 

 ened by the Egyptian government so that the structures 

 may not be injured when the Assuan reservoir is filled. 

 The water will stand 6 to 10 feet on the island during 

 this period. The temple of Isis is the most celebrated 

 structure on the island. Similar temples on the south 

 end of the island and the liosk on the eastern margin 

 are also picturesque and interesting. A row of columns 

 along the west shore of the island is representative or 



the architecture of the Ptolemaic period. Two nilc- 

 meters are located on this shore. They are simply 

 stairways running from the land down to the Nile. 

 As the Nile rises its depth is indicated on the walls of 

 the stairways by graduations of different kinds. 



Two miles north is the Assuan dam. It is 1^ 

 miles long and 70 feet high. As places is was neces- 



IRRIG.XTED GARDENS, CAIRO. 



sary to go 70 feet below the bed of the river to find 

 solid material upon which to erect the dam. It is built 

 entirely of granite masonry and contains enough stone 

 to build a wall 6 feet high and 18 inches thick from 

 Colorado Springs to Omaha. No water will flow over 

 the dam. The discharge of the Nile is controlled by 180 

 sluiceways through the dam, which arc closed by heavy 

 steel gates during the time water is being stored. Work 

 on the foundation was greatly facilitated by turning 

 the discharge of the river from one channel to another 

 as the construction progressed One of the problems 



JOSEPHS CANAL. 

 Largest in the World Near Medioet el Fayum. 



which the engineers had to overcome was to protect the 

 cement from the sun until it had set properly. This 

 was accomplished by covering al! newly laid masonry 

 with burlap which was kept wet. Some of the sluice- 

 ways are lined with ashlar masonry, while 40 of the 

 lower ones hare cast iron linings. This was used because 

 the work could be completed much more quickly, and a 



