398 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



Medinet-el-Fayum — Kasr-Kerun. 



Medinet-el-Fayum, tlie modern capital, wliicli was a country residence of tlie 

 Mameluk dynasty, is one of the most animated and original as well as one of the 

 pleasantest places in Egypt. The gardens yield in abundance fruits and flowers, 

 amongst others those lovely roses which are at once the glory and the chief wealth 

 of the Fayum, being used by the Copts in the preparation of costly essences. 



North of Medinet stands Sen// u res, also an important town. The surrounding 

 plains of the lacustrine basin, fabled to have been originally conquered from 

 Typhon — that is, reclaimed from the wilderness through the beneficent influence of 

 Osiris, tutelar deity of the Nile waters — yield rich crops of wheat, cotton, maize, 

 sugar. The sugar factories of this district are connected by numerous branches 

 with the main railway system. But the cultivation of some plants has had to be 

 abandoned, owing to the increasing saline character of the soil, insufficiently 

 saturated by the irrigating waters. The vineyards, which during the seventeenth 

 century were cultivated in the neighbourhood of seven different villages, have 

 entirely disappeared. 



Near the northern extremity of the Birket-el-Kerun, the " Lake of Ages " or 

 of " the Horns," as it is variously interpreted, where are collected the superfluous 

 waters from the irrigation canals, are seen the ruins of a temple bearing the name 

 of Kasr-Kerun, or ''Horn Castle," which is supposed to occupy the site of the 

 ancient Dionysias. South of the lake the plain stretches away in the direction of 

 the Wady-Reyan, some parts of which, separated by a rising ground from the 

 "Lake of Ages," lie some 270 feet below the entrance of the Bahr-Yusef at 

 El-Lahun. It was in this depression that Cope Whitehouse expected to find the 

 great reservoir of Lake Mœris ! 



Meidum — Saqqarah. 



Almost immediately to the north of the entrance to the Fayum stands the 

 remarkable pyramid of Meidum, with which begins the long line of monuments of 

 this type terminating northwards beyond Memphis. The sloping walls of the 

 Meidum, which terminated in two retreating stories, spring from the midst of a 

 pile of refuse encircled by a number of tombs. This curious monument, whose 

 present height exceeds 200 feet, is known to the natives as the " False Pyramid ; " 

 but its antiquity is much less than was till recently supposed. According to 

 Maspero, by whom it has been opened, it dates only from the eleventh or even the 

 twelfth dynasty. 



Farther on the village of Matanieh is overshadowed by two other pyramids, 

 one of which is of the classical type, while the other, more inclined towards the 

 summit than in the lower section, presents the appearance of an enormous prism. 

 Then follow in the neighbourhood of the Nile the four so-called pyramids of 

 Dashur, one of which attains a height of 330 feet. This ranks as the third in 

 height of all the Egyptian pyramids, and has preserved its original facing of 



