The Fayum Lakes

Abstract

THE first of six reasons given by Sir Flinders Petrie (NATURE, Oct. 9, p. 514) for maintaining his view that the level of the Fayum lake gradually rose with the rise of the Nile, is that there must have been an open channel which it is unlikely would have become blocked when a large mass of water flowed to and fro each year. The flood waters of the Nile are heavily silt laden, and when they entered and filled the Fayum the surplus would have re-established its ordinary course northwards along the valley. The lake, connected by a channel at least 10 kilometres long, would never have filled quite to the Highest flood level of the river. As soon as the crest of the flood passed and the water levels began to fall, the current in the connecting channel would die away, silt would be deposited, and it would have become choked and blocked up. The river carries most silt at the highest levels of the flood, and the rapidity with which deposits are formed must be seen to be realised. The inlet, once closed with a bank of silt, would not have been readily reopened.