Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    88/628 page 64
    Tlie oases always lie at a considerably lower level than the stony plateau of the desert, which rises above them in picturesque rocky pre- cipices.. and the oasis of Siwa is about 78 ft. below the sea-level. The flat surfaces of these depressions do not always form a single cultivated area, but consist, even in the case of the smallest oases like Farafra, of a number of comparatively small parcels of cultivable soil, separated by belts of sterile ground. One of the large oases, like that of Khargeh, when surveyed from the neighbouring heights, presents the appearance of a large expanse of desert, flecked with isolated spots of light and dark green, the former being fields of corn and other crops, and the latter palm-groves. These islands of vegetation, the extent of which depends on the copiousness of the springs in their midst and the amount of care used in the distribution of the water, have often since the time of Strabo been not inaptly compared to the spots on a pan- ther’s skin, but the simile applies to the oases individually, and not to those of the Libyan desert as a whole, as they are but few in number and very far apart. As already observed, these Libyan oases owe their fertility to the copiousness of their water supply. Inexhaustible subterranean channels, or an immense reservoir, perhaps common to all the oases, are believed to connect them with the Nubian Nile, or possibly with the Sudan; and of this supply it is probable that a very limited portion only comes to the sui’face in the form of springs. Within the last thirty years Hasan- Eftendi, a well-digger from the valley of the Nile, and formerly servant to^a French engineer, has sunk about sixty new wells in the oasis of Dakhel, some of which, though close to older wells, do not seem to di- minish the copiousness of the latter. With the aid of this additional supply a large area of sterile soil has been brought under cultivation, and it is therefore probable that by means of Artesian wells, such as those sunk by the French in the Algerian oases, the extent of the cultivable soil might still be largely increased. The high temperature of the water, both in the natural springs and in the wells, shows that it comes from a great depth; and it is strongly impregnated with mineral ingredients, as in the case of the bath-springs of Kasr Dakhel and Bahriyeh (97° Fahr.), and the beautiful sun-spring (rAin Hammam) at Siwa (85°), the curative properties of which, owing to their remote situation, are seldom utilised. At Bahriyeh the stratum from which the water more immediately bursts forth seems to lie at no great depth below the sui’face of the soil. The thermal waters of Dakhel contain iron, and, like those of Farafra and Khai’geh, are not unpleasant to drink when cooled; but the water of Siwa is brackish and nauseous to the taste. The wells are generally very deep (90-320 ft. and upwai’ds), and in ancient times the inhabitants of the oases, as we are infoiuned by Olympiodorus, wei’e celebrated for their skill in sinking them. The invasion of the Ai’abs, however, was suc- ceeded by sevei’al centuries of barbarism, during which the art of boring wells was well nigh forgotten; many wells were filled up, and extensive tracts of cultivated land, still traceable by the old divisions of the fields, were abandoned; but, as above mentioned, the practice is beginning to be revived. The considerable force with which the water comes up from its profound reservoii’S enables the inhabitants to constrxict wells or ar- tificial dams on the highest parts of the oases. The fields are always ariainged in terraces of picturesqxie appearance, over which the fertilis- ing element is conducted downwards in succession, so that the laborious system of sakiyehs and shadufs used in the valley of the Nile is dispensed with. Among the southeim oases, on the other hand, we frequently ob- serve extensive water-conduits, carried by artificial embankments to long distances for the purpose of conveying the precious liquid over ste- rile. salt groxmd to good soil, or necessitated by the requirements of the curiously involved l’ights of property. These conduits not unfreqxxently cross each other at different levels. The springs are generally the pro- perty of the communities, rarely that of wealthy individuals; and it is in proportion to their number, and that of the date-palms, that the in- habitants have to pay taxes, while the soil itself is nominally free.
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