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the river itself were allowed to be swept by the floods. It must have 
been on this wild eastern bank that were conducted all the hippo- 
potamus hunts which are crowded on the wall pictures of buildings of 
the early dynasties. In all probability, the first six dynasties contented 
themselves with developing the left bank of the Nile. As, however, 
the population increased, and with it the demand for new lands, it 
became necessary to reclaim the right bank of the river as well. The 
task now was doubly difficult, as the river had to be confined to its 
own trough. This masterful feat was performed by the great Pharaohs 
of the Xllth Dynasty, the Amenemhats and the Usartsens, who, 
under the name of Sesostris, usurped the place of Menes in the imagin- 
ation of the ancient world. They were too well advised to content 
themselves with repeating on the right bank what Menes had done on 
the left. By suddenly confining the river they would have exposed 
the low-lying lands of Memphis and Lower Egypt to disastrous 
inundations. To obviate this, they widened and deepened the natural 
channel which led to the Fayoum depression in the Lybian hills, and 
converted it into a powerful escape to carry off the excess waters of 
high floods ; and so successful were they in their undertakings that 
the conversion of the Fayoum depression into Lake Mceris was long 
considered by the ancient world as one of its greatest wonders. They 
led the flood into the depression when it was dangerously high, and 
provided for its return to the river when the inundation had come to 
an end. By this means, they insured the lake against being at a high 
level during a period of flood. The gigantic dykes of entry and exit 
were only cut in times of emergency, and were reconstructed again at 
an expense of labour which even an Egyptian Pharaoh considered 
excessive. To understand how capable Lake Moeris was to control 
the floods, and turn a dangerous into a beneficial inundation, I should 
recommend a study of Sir Hanbury Brown’s “Fayoum and Lake Moeris.” 
As years rolled on the Nile widened and deepened its own trough, to 
which it was now confined ; and, eventually, the time came when Lake 
Moeris could be dispensed with without danger. It was gradually 
reclaimed and converted into the Fayoum with its 350,000 acres of 
cultivated land. 
Basin irrigation holds the flood waters for some 45 days per annum 
over the whole of the valley. The water is in places 3 metres deep, 
and in others only 30 centimetres deep, while the average depth is 
about 1 metre. Now the retention of this water over the land for a 
