62 



NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



Bahr-belâ-mâ, or " Waterless Sea." But this hypothesis has not been confirmed 

 by the latest surveys, which have failed to discover any alluvial deposits indicating 

 the presence of the stream at this point. The planks and masts of Nile boats 

 spoken of by the Arabs are the stems of petrified trees, such as occur in various 

 parts of the desert. 



The Fayum, the Arsinoïtidis of the ancients, has been the scene of some of the 

 most remarkable hydraulic operations of the old Egyptian engineers. Before the 



Fig. 21.— Fayum. 

 Scale 1 : 475,000. 



SOMO' 



51' L . of breenwicK 



Buins of the dyke of Lake Mœris. 

 -^^^— ^— — — — 6 Miles. 



interference of man the whole depression, which received all the waters of the 

 Bahr-Yusef, formed an extensive inland sea. On this point tradition is unani- 

 mous, and in any case the continuous inflow must have flooded the cavity to a 

 level sufficiently high to establish an equilibrium between the discharge and the 

 loss by evaporation. The very name of Fayum (Piom, Phaiom), is said to mean 

 " flooded land " in the old Egyptian language, although the Arabic word fayyum 

 itself gives the appropriate sense of " corn-bearer." But after the Bahr-Yusef 



