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CAIRO TO LUXOR.

The Pyramids of Lisht.

These pyramids lie near the village of Matâniyah, and were built by Amenemḥāt I., the first king of the XIIth dynasty, and his son Usertsen I.; they are about 35 miles to the south of Cairo.

The Pyramid of Medum.

This pyramid, which is about 40 miles south of Cairo, is called by the Arabs Al-Haram al-Kaddab, or 'the False Pyramid'; it is probably so named because it is unlike any of the other pyramids known to them. It appears to

have been built by Seneferu (1), the first

king of the IVth dynasty, for the name of this king is found at various places in and about it. The pyramid is about 115 feet high, and consists of three stages: the first is 70, the second 20, and the third about 25 feet high. The stone for this building was brought from the Mukaṭṭam hills, but it was never finished; as in all other pyramids, the entrance is on the north side. It was opened by Prof. Maspero in 1881, and was examined ten years later by Prof. Petrie. The sarcophagus chamber was found empty, and it would seem that this pyramid had been entered and rifled in ancient days. On the north of this pyramid are a number of mașțăbas in which royal relatives' of Seneferu are buried; the most interesting of these are those of Nefermat, one of his feudal chiefs

erpa ha) and of Atet his widow. The sculptures and general

style of the work are similar to those found in the mastabas of Sakkara.

Aṭfiḥ, 57 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile, marks the site of the Greek city of Aphroditopolis, the Per-nebt-tepu-ȧh

of the ancient Egyptians, where the goddess Hathor was worshipped.

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At Wasta, a town 57 miles from Cairo, is the railway junction for the Fayyûm. The line from Wasțâ runs westwards, and its terminus is at Madinat al-Fayyûm, a large Egyptian town situated a little distance from the site of Arsinoë in the Heptanomis,* called Crocodilopolist by the Grecks, because the crocodile was here worshipped. The Egyptians called the Fayyûm Ta-she the lake district,' and the name Fayyûm is the Arabic form of the Coptic pro, 'the sea.' The Fayyûm district has an area of about 850 square miles, and is watered by a branch of the Nile called the Baḥr-Yûsuf, which flows into it through the Libyan mountains. On the west of it lies the Birket al-Kurûn. This now fertile land is thought to have been reclaimed from the desert by Amenemḥät III., a king of the XIIth dynasty. The Birket al-Kurûn is formed by a deep depression in the desert scooped out of the Parisian limestone, which has become covered in great part by thick belts of salted loams and marls. On these Nile mud has been deposited. The Birket al-Kurûn is all that is left of

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Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt, was the district which separated the Thebaïd from the Delta; the names of the seven nomes were: Memphites, Heracleopolites, Crocodilopolites or Arsinoites, Aphroditopolites, Oxyrrhynchites, Cynopolites, and Hermopolites, The greater and lesser Oases were always reckoned parts of the Heptanomis.

In Egyptian, Neter het Sebek.

From the Egyptian

Pa-iuma.

the ancien Lake Moeris,* and its water surface is about 130 feet below sea level. Its cubic contents are estimated at 1,500,000,000 of cubic metres.

The Bahr-Yûsuf is said by some to have been excavated under the direction of the patriarch Joseph, but there is no satisfactory evidence for this theory; strictly speaking, it is an arm of the Nile, which has always needed cleaning out from time to time, and the Yûsuf, or Joseph, after whom it is named, was probably one of the Muḥammadan rulers of Egypt.

The descriptions of Lake Moeris given by classical authorities are as follows:

Herodotus says (ii. 149) "Although this Labyrinth is such, yet the Lake named from Moeris, near which this Labyrinth is built, occasions greater wonder; its circumference measures 3,600 stades, or 60 schoenes, equal to the sea-coast of Egypt. The Lake stretches lengthways north and south, being in depth in the deepest part 50 orgyæ (300 feet). That it is made by hand and dry, this circumstance proves, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, each rising 50 orgyæ above the surface of the water, and this part built under water extends to an equal depth; on each of these is placed a stone statue, seated on a throne. Thus these pyramids are 100 orgyæ (600 feet) in height; and 100 orgyæ are equal to a stade of 6 plethra ; the orgya measuring 6 feet or 4 cubits; the foot being 4 palms, and the cubit 6 palms. The water in this Lake does not spring from the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed through a channel from the Nile, and for 6 months it flows into the Lake, and 6 months out again into the Nile. And during the 6 months that it flows out it yields a talent of silver (£240) every day to the

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