Ward, John: Pyramids and progress: sketches from Egypt (London, 1900)

MAP OF ANCIENT LAKE MOERÍS.
The shaded pact shows the land reclaimed from the Lake hy Ameneinhat III.
(Frota Pítrie's "History 0/ Egypt.")

PYRAMIDS AND PROGRESS.

of Egypt, vol. i.
The cylinder was
doubtless a royal
sign manual given
to the officer who
was entrusted with
command of the
irrigation works of
the province, which
was, in these remote
days, the richest in
Egypt, as it soon
will be again. The
two pyramids are
now mere heaps of
sunbaked bricks.

All their casing of white polished stone has been stolen long ago. But in his

excavations round the rubbish at the bases of both of the Fayum pyramids

Dr. Pétrie found the lower courses of Tourah stone still remaining in situ.
In later days the people who inhabited the Grasco-Roman' towns of the

Fayum made mummies of their dead, and painted outside

their coffins the portraits of their dear ones. Hundreds

of such were dug up, and the portraits, done in oil or

wax, brought away. Several of them are in our National

Gallery, in the British Museum, and the Cairo Museum.

These are by far the oldest oil portraits in the world. When

I visited this

district I shel-
tered from the

sun in a large

house, owned

by a wealthy

agriculturist,

which possessed

a small steam

engine. The

boiler was fed

by wooden cof-

fir.s 2,000 years camping scene in the fayum.