Show 1 C i Twentieth Century Egypt IX Arresting the Tears of Isis I BY FREDERIC J HASKIN I Cairo E In ancient Egypt It was believed that tears teara Bh d y Isis over oer th the tomb torah of Osiris caused the annual flood floodIng floodIng flooding Ing of or the tile Nile Can CaD man arrest th tho tears of late isle as they flow now 7 was a ques question tron tion Implying the Ute Impossible Today the tears teaR of ot Isle are stored t behind a great grent dam at in a lake that contains a button bIllIon tOM tons and ami is ltd miles long Ac According cording to a popular superstition pearls mean tears tear in an Egypt the tears of isis mean JDean pearls to 0 agriculturists and ami a Wit 11 Ilam who made th the plans for forthe forthe forthe the dam wears weeR an of British knighthood knight knighthood hood boud conferred in recognition of his ser sr services services vices nees Agriculture in iD the Nile valley is Ie of course ur older than Utan the oldest monuments f r Egypt Irrigation Is 18 as old as agriculture agriculture ture but scientific Irrigation upon a scale seale commensurate with Its importance as a In the development of the country is a product of ot modern modem times time There are two kinds of Irrigation along the Nile One is O years old It consists of or a basin basla system which inundates Inundate the fields during the freshet The other is perennial and depends upon storage reservoirs and anda a modern system of releasing the water as It la Is needed The first tir t crops were the result of seed sown upon the mud when the flood had receded Interlocked with the known and unknown political history of Egypt from the beginning is the story of the expansion sion of ot systems for tor Increasing the area of ot land laRd made tillable by retaining the slit silt laden overflow and causing U j to take the place of rain during the season 5 of ot low lowI I Nile lIe At present the lode of syenite gran granite granIto lite Ito ite that furnishes the material for the temple of the Sphinx and the I Is the backbone of a plan of irrigation that contemplates still greater results than I have be been n already achieved Tillable Egypt except Inthe lx the province I of and In the Nile delta is mere merely merely II ly a narrow strip of reclaimed desert sometimes extending only upon one side lor of the stream According to tradition Lake Morris Moerls a great reservoir to Irrigate I was constructed ted by King Amen of the twelfth dynasty dynast It Is be that Mehemet All the viceroy who planned but never completed OWL a system of perennial irrigation was Inspired by Toy bythe bythe the example of or But Great Britain claims and must be accorded credit for planning financing and com coin completing pleUn the dam at In Upper t Egypt the traveler sees today In active operation the basin irrigation which tradition says ys dates back to King iCing Menes who reigned some gome seventy cen centuries centuries tunes before the British occupation of tho thi tholand th land of the It Is simple In Its rudimentary form although complex in Its development The Tle banks of the Nile are art of formation and higher than the valley behind them The sources of the river are approximately feet above aboe the level ot or the sea Along the he river as its shores slope northward to toward toward toward ward the Mediterranean earthen dykes are run at right angles to the stream Dykes parallel to the stream and close to the berrns or high banks connect them forming farming basins enclosed on the desert side sideby sl sideby by the rising ground that marks the limit of arable amble area The basins drain from one oneto oneto oneto to another and the last of ot a series drains back jack Into the Nile In this manner the theand theland theland land and Is IB arranged In a succession of ter tar terraces terraces races falling failing gradually toward the north Where the lay la of ot the land admits of ot it the system Is extended by the construction of or a second or third dyke parallel to the river The are ar irrigated either by b high ligh level canals starting from above the Beginning of ot the basin system or by lift liftIng liftIng Ing ng the water from the river rier Feeder ca en canals canals nals flats vary in size from Insignificant ditches to considerable rivers upon which large sailboats ply From the train as the traveler traverses Egypt picturesque tri triangular triangular tn angular sails and slanting bamboo booms of or the Egyptian seem to rise from ploughed fields Upper Egypt at flood time Is a vast lake bounded on the east e st and west and grid Ironed by a network fretwork of dykes The leakes bakes are dotted by the mud huts or of the fellaheen er peasants always on mounds or in clusters or small villages The fellah and his family lead a some somewhat somewhat somewhat what precarious existence during the In Inundation Inundation If the water reaches the huts they crumble like Vike mud pies dipped In a aluck luck duck pond and the homes became a mass massof massof massof of muck The fellaheen and their live livestock livestock stock live throughout the flood period upon bits of high ground and the dykes which form their roads Goats sheep water buffaloes camels little donkeys hardly larger than Great Danes Banes horses and human beings are ar in narrow I spaces of ot solid earth White winged aquatic birds birda claim cl l the she lakes lka k as II their thrown own Rats Rata from the marshes ralles infest t the dykes and village villages and are MO protected 11 from attack by b a curious superstition sup of the fellaheen according to which the ate latu as the flood recedes turn tura to te hellS balls of or fertile futile mud to play a part in producing pro Basin BaID irrigation reached Jached A high devel development development under the Romans and a stream of or grain from the whole Nile lIe Valley valle and the delta flowed through Alexandria to the ports of th tM the Mediterranean After Aner the Arab conquest there followed ten tenor tenor tenor or eleven centuries of or neglect which caused an enormous decrease In cultivable cultivable cultivable vable area and a proportional decrease in population While the claim that there were Inhabitants of the coun country country country try when the Arabs Arab conquered It Is doubt doubtless doubtless doubtless less an exaggeration exa ratton it Is III true that the beginning of the nineteenth century found Egypt reduced in ID population to about and despoiled by shiftless ness fleas of a great deal of matchless farm farmIng farmIng Ing lug land At prevent present more than Uta acres acre of land which produced crops du do during during doring ring the Roman occupation now BOW lie He un under Under der the great lakes Ike of ot the delta or are salt marshes Where the vineyards palm groves ana aDi an wheat fields tickle once smiled beneath the sum sw su great salty lagoons now no form torm a home honie te for tor water fowl The sites rites of Tinnis Tun Ton Tunal ah al and other manufacturing elites cities arc are under the sloughs elo hs The retreat of agriculture southward ard arda a aa aI aIa a result of the overflow of a part of the delta was wal followed in time by b an in increase increase j crease of or tillable area a further up the Nile due to perennial Irrigation Vice Viceroy Viceroy i iro roy ro Mehmet All AU a man of great greet imagination i nation and ambition but rather lack lackIng lae lacking I Ing In fixedness of purpose is given credit I for having Introduced the e Idea kI of peren perennial perennial nial fiat Irrigation and for foi fo having planned plan and dreamed of such sueh a structure as ae the I dam but his dream became an I accomplished hed fact only when British bus business 5 iness mess methods were ware applied to the solo solution solution tion lion of problem Viceroy Mehmet f All Alt is best remembered as the Albanian Alba tan tobacconist who tto was a sent to rule Egypt a century ago and ana who after murdering the and performing other and more re creditable feats attempted to make a conquest of the Ottoman empire In addition to his b ambition to become sultan of at Turkey the Albanian desired to become the father of irrigation in Egypt Although Great Britain dealt his hie army a death de th blow at Acre thus defeating his greater am ambition ambition bitten he lie did found a dynasty in Egypt His net results as an Irrigator were lees ls 1 significant Realizing that cotton and aM sugar cane culture would be In Inthe Egypt under a system of perennial Irrigation Irrigation gation the despot leveled the dikes using the enforced and labor of the fellaheen and attempted a storage system to provide for applying water to the crops the year round Sultan Hassan robbed the pyramid of Cheeps of Its marble marMe casing easing to build a mosque in hi his own honor and was ws exe execrated execrated execrated crated by the civilized world Mehmet All who ordered the pyramid razed to I provide stone for a delta barrage was as saved from a similar fate by the quick wit of a French engineer who told him that it would be cheaper to open a quarry ry n He finally neglected the barrage and never the reservoir HII H successors sors sons made little progress with the tle Irrigation tion project The or Vr r Aswan dun dam as alS an engineering feat is the t land landmark landmark landmark mark of or progress In Egypt As Aa a bridle for the Nile It has proved altogether successful Its Us construction was financed by b London capitalists Egypt agreeing to pay for it in Installments after alter Its com corn completion completion It was expected that the cost with Interest would be 5 to the Egyptian government Because of af un unexpected unexpected unexpected expected conditions In the Ute river bed an additional expense of 16 Ie per cent In the estimate was Incurred Work York Is now In progress to raise the dam about twentythree feet This will Increase Its storage capacity two and times imes The cost coat will 11 be he IT l and acres of land now use useless less will 11 become fertile This land will willbe willbe Willbe be worth from 00 l to SIX SUii an acre This gigantic dam Impounding a billion tens t n of the tears of lila as ail they the flow rIo Is 1 pointed to by Englishmen as proof that England is II the greatest builder the I valley has haa known and that the twentieth century has produced the greatest of E monuments Copyright by Frederic J Haskin I Tomorrow Twentieth Century Egypt I X Farming In I |