Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
chapter:
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5-18chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77-98chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92-5chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102-110chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112-17chapter 112chapter 113chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118chapter 119chapter 120chapter 121chapter 121Achapter 121Dchapter 121Echapter 121Fchapter 122chapter 123chapter 124-36chapter 124chapter 125chapter 126chapter 127chapter 128chapter 129chapter 130chapter 131chapter 132chapter 133chapter 134chapter 135chapter 136chapter 137chapter 138chapter 139chapter 140chapter 141chapter 142chapter 143chapter 144chapter 145chapter 146chapter 147-82chapter 147chapter 148chapter 149chapter 150chapter 151chapter 152chapter 153chapter 154chapter 155chapter 156chapter 157chapter 158chapter 159chapter 160chapter 161chapter 162chapter 163chapter 164chapter 165chapter 167chapter 168chapter 169chapter 170chapter 171chapter 172chapter 173chapter 174chapter 175chapter 176chapter 177chapter 178chapter 179chapter 180chapter 181chapter 182
This text is part of:
Lake Moeris (for the name cf. 101 n.) ‘was the natural basin of the Fayûm oasis, regulated and utilized by Amenemhét III’ (Petrie, i. 192, with whom Breasted, pp. 193-4, agrees). The Fayûm in its lowest parts is over 120 feet below the sea level, and was originally filled with water by the Nile; some parts of it, however, e. g. the site of Arsinoe, were inhabited even under the Old Empire, and more of it was reclaimed by the great kings of the twelfth dynasty, especially Amenemhêt III. He also regulated the flow of the Nile, using the lake to hold the surplus of the high Nile, and then letting the water go as it was wanted. In fact his work was an anticipation of the Barrage and the dam at Assouan. Owing to the rise in height of the Nile valley on the east side, Lake Moeris gradually became useless for controlling the Nile flood, but the work of reclamation was greatly extended under the Ptolemies. Only the Birket Karûn is now left, on the north-west of the district; this lake is thirty-four miles long. The topography of Lake Moeris was finally settled by Major Brown (The Fayûm and L. M., 1892); for a good summary cf. Grenfell and Hunt, Fayûm Towns (E. E. F., 1900, pp. 1-17); they say H.'s ‘mistakes, such as they are, are those of an uncritical eyewitness’; while Strabo, on the other hand, claims to have seen what bad ceased to exist 200 years before his time (p. 8). Other views of Lake Moeris are briefly: (1) that of Linant (published 1843), who first explored the district, that Lake Moeris was on the east side of the Fayûm, held up by huge dykes. This, though long accepted, is now given up. (2) Maspero (p. 131) and Meyer (i. 293) both deny that the lake had anything to do with the regulation of the Nile flood. It will be noticed that H. says nothing as to this. ἑξακόσιοι καὶ τρισχίλιοι. This figure—about 400 miles—is much exaggerated; the size of Lake Moeris is estimated by Petrie (Hawara, p. 2) at about 130 miles; the coast-line is about 180 miles.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.