Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/488

 898 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. Mei)Inet-el-Fayum — Kasr-Kerux. Medinet-el-Fayum, the modern capital, which was a country residence of the 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 Senhures, 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 water8-»-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 Kusr-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 Moeris ! 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 monimients 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 tjrpe, while the other, more inclined towards the summit than in the lower section, presents the appearance of an enormqus 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