THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



49 



IRRIGATION IN EGYPT. 



That the engineers of today are tackling the same 

 irrigation problems in Egypt that the ancients essayed 

 4,000 years ago speaks much for the worthy purpose of 

 our scientific efforts, however little satisfaction it yields 

 on account of industrial progress. Like all modern 

 enterprises in Egypt, it is likely to demonstrate the 

 reality of another "lost art." 



To a leading article in Engineering we are in- 

 debted for a clear statement of present conditions in 

 Egypt so far as they relate to irrigation problems. 



In the first place the cultivable soil of the country 

 owes its origin entirely to the accumulated deposits of 

 silt brought down annually by the Nile floods. In the 

 absence of rainfalls, the soil is dependent for both mois- 

 ture and fertility upon these inundations. 



Diodorus, Strabo and Herodotus have independ- 

 ently borne witness to a vast artificial lake or reservoir, 

 which was constructed to receive the superfluous water 



turies of neglect, and the lake vanished, but the depres- 

 sion remained, as a fertile valley in the desert. 



When, in recent years, the control of Egypt was 

 undertaken by western nations it was seen that one of 

 the most important things to be done was the regulation 

 of the Nile and the control of irrigation by the con- 

 struction of proper irrigation works. The irrigable area 

 of Egypt is placed at six and a quarter million acres, 

 and there is an ample supply of water in the Nile for 

 the purpose, providing that the superfluous flood water 

 is stored for use in the dry season. At the present time 

 four million acres are perennially irrigated, and one- 

 quarter of a million acres lying along the edge of the 

 deserts must remain irrigated only in flood time, leaving 

 the great area of two million acres yet to be dealt with. 

 Since a storage capacity of two milliards of cubic metres 

 of water are required for each million acres, the problem 

 is that of providing reservoir capacity for four milliards 

 of cubic metres of water. At its present level the res- 

 ervoir formed by the dam at Assouan stores but one 



Furrow Irrigation. 

 [From the Primer of Irrigation, Page 150.] 



from the Nile at flood time, and to distribute it when 

 and where required by means of canals. The latter 

 writer is enthusiastic in his admiration of the work, 

 which he classes far above the mighty pyramid of Cheops 

 as an example of the triumph of human skill and labor 

 over natural obstacles. This lake Moeris was dug 

 by the orders of King Amenemhat III, who lived about 

 2000 B. C. It had a superficial area of 950 square miles, 

 with a depth in places of 300 feet. It was connected 

 with the Nile by a canal ten miles long and 300 feet 

 wide, controlled by means of sluices, which served to 

 draw off the surplus water from the river, and return 

 it at periods of low water. 



As all who have followed the recent history of 

 Egypt will know, the site of the ancient lake has been 

 identified beyond doubt with the present province known 

 as the Fayoum, by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, whose re- 

 searches have not only abundantly justified the classical 

 historians, but have had a most direct bearing upon the 

 problem of the irrigation of Egypt at the present day. 

 The canal to the Nile had become silted up during cen- 



milliard of cubic metres, 'or only one-fourth of the re- 

 quired amount, leaving three milliards of cubic metres 

 to be provided for. 



In seeking for a reservoir for the supply of Egypt 

 during the dry season, it is not to be wondered at that 

 the reconstruction of the ancient Lake of Moeris should 

 have been carefuly considered. As, however, in the bed 

 of the lake is a fertile province with a cultivable area 

 of 400,000 acres and a value erf 80,000,000, its con- 

 struction on its original site is out of the question ; but 

 there exists a smaller depression in the Libyan hills 

 immediately to the south to which no such objections 

 apply. This depression is known as the Wady Rayan, 

 and Mr. Cope Whitehouse, the discoverer of Lake 

 Moeris, has for years insisted that in turning the Wady 

 Rayan into an artificial lake or reservoir lies the true 

 solution of the problem of Egypt's water supply. Its 

 area at a level of twenty-nine metres, about that of the 

 sea, would be about 700 sqpare kilometres, or 270 square 

 miles. When full its greatest depth would be seventy 

 metres, though only the upper four or five metres would 



