THE FAYUM DEPRESSION. 



61 



below the level of the Mediterranean. Although apparently quite flat, it has a 

 sufiicient incline for the waters of the canal derived from the Bahr-Yusef to 

 circulate throughout the whole area, imparting to the Fayum a fertility rivalling 

 that of the Nile delta itself. The superfluous water is collected towards the south 

 in the small Lake Gara'a, or the " Hollow," whence it formerly penetrated far into 

 the Wady Reyan. Towards the west the system of canalisation converges in a 

 large lake about 30 miles long from south-west to north-east. This reservoir, 



Fig. 20. — Entrange of the Fayum. 

 Scale 1 : 150,000. 



E. of breenwich 



3 Miles. 



known as the Birket-el-Kerun, is but slightly brackish, and quite drinkable by 

 animals when it floods the whole western depression of the valley. But when 

 reduced by evaporation it becomes saline, and the margin is then covered with 

 crystalline efflorescences resembling snow at a distance. In some places the 

 muddy ground, clothed like the Algerian sebkhas with a slight incrustation of 

 salt, forms treacherous quagmires, dangerous to man and beast. 



Till recently the superfluous waters were supposed to escape through a rocky 

 gorge in the hills north of the Fayum Valley, to the depression known as the 



