Land of Khemi Up Author:Laurence Oliphant General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1882 Original Publisher: Blackwood Subjects: Nile River Nile History / Africa / General History / Ancient / Egypt History / Middle East / Egypt Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Middle East Travel / Middle East / Egypt Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint... more » of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. THE LABYRINTH AND THE LAKES. The most striking object which meets the eye from the summit of the highest mound of ruin of the ancient city of Arsinoe, is the Pyramid of Howara, distant about five miles as the crow flies from the modern town of Medinet el Fayoum, but considerably farther by the road, -- if the narrow paths which traverse the fields can be called roads, -- for the country is so intersected by canals, that one is frequently obliged, in riding, to make long detours in search of a bridge. As our capacity for enduring fatigue was somewhat limited, we determined, under these circumstances, to make the expedition in a boat -- a mode of locomotion not usually employed in the Fayoum. There are, indeed, only about fourteen miles of navigable river, the sluices at Illahoon barring all farther progress eastwards, and the subdivision of the Bahr Youssef at Medinet into numerous minor canals blocking it by dams and water- wheels in all directions. I held converse with the head of the boating fraternity on the feasibility of my project, and found that ten heavy barges and two small boats composed the entire carrying capacity of the river. The barges are used for conveying manure to the fields adjoining the canal, and bringing their produce to the town. I inspected the small boats, and having selected the one which was least old and leaky, had her cleaned, and an awning put...« less