DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0174
THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS.
southern side of Lake Menzaleh. But the diminution in the cost of construction, say
$40,000,000, instead of $80,000,000, would not have been the chief gain : that would
have been found in the fact that the canal would have been a new Nile in a new desert-
It would have contained an inexhaustible storage of water to fertilize, and to cover with
life and wealth, a new Egypt."1
The fresh-water canal, the construction of which was an essential preliminary to com-
mencing the main work, leaves the Nile near Cairo, and pursues a north-easterly course
till it reaches the site of Pithom, where, as we have seen, the Hebrews were laboring at
the period of the Exodus. It thence runs due east to Ismailia, the central station on the
CAEAVAN STAETING FEOM SUEZ.
ship canal, and is continued southward to Suez. Pumping-engines at Ismailia force the
water along iron pipes northward to Port Said, a distance of about fifty miles. Reser-
voirs are constructed at all the principal stations along this part of the canal for the
supply of the inhabitants, and open drinking-troughs are placed at distances of about three
miles from each other along the line, which are kept constantly full, by means of an
ordinary ball and cock, like those in use in our English cisterns.
The ship canal is as nearly as possible one hundred miles in length, running due north
and south from Port Said to Suez. It was not found necessary, however, to excavate
the channel for the whole distance. A glance at the map will show that it runs through
four great iakes : Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes. The first two of
1 F-D'pt °f the Pharaohs and the Khedive, p. 420.
170
southern side of Lake Menzaleh. But the diminution in the cost of construction, say
$40,000,000, instead of $80,000,000, would not have been the chief gain : that would
have been found in the fact that the canal would have been a new Nile in a new desert-
It would have contained an inexhaustible storage of water to fertilize, and to cover with
life and wealth, a new Egypt."1
The fresh-water canal, the construction of which was an essential preliminary to com-
mencing the main work, leaves the Nile near Cairo, and pursues a north-easterly course
till it reaches the site of Pithom, where, as we have seen, the Hebrews were laboring at
the period of the Exodus. It thence runs due east to Ismailia, the central station on the
CAEAVAN STAETING FEOM SUEZ.
ship canal, and is continued southward to Suez. Pumping-engines at Ismailia force the
water along iron pipes northward to Port Said, a distance of about fifty miles. Reser-
voirs are constructed at all the principal stations along this part of the canal for the
supply of the inhabitants, and open drinking-troughs are placed at distances of about three
miles from each other along the line, which are kept constantly full, by means of an
ordinary ball and cock, like those in use in our English cisterns.
The ship canal is as nearly as possible one hundred miles in length, running due north
and south from Port Said to Suez. It was not found necessary, however, to excavate
the channel for the whole distance. A glance at the map will show that it runs through
four great iakes : Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes. The first two of
1 F-D'pt °f the Pharaohs and the Khedive, p. 420.
170