Wadi El Hittan

Wadi El Hittan

sent in to survey the Fayoum and soon found more fossil vertebrates. British Museum of Natural History paleontologist Charles W. Andrews joined Beadnell in 1901 to help make

the first extensive fossil collection from the Fayoum. They published their impressive results shortly thereafter and aroused world attention. A German team, led by Stuttgart's Eberhard Fraas and Richard Markgraf who had moved to the Fayoum, followed the British in 1905. Now the Americans were compelled to have their own look Having an area of 490 mile² (1,270 km²).

Nile Valley. The Bahr Yussef veers west through a narrow neck of land north of Ihansya, between the archaeological sites of Lahun and Gurob near Hawara; it then branches out, providing rich agricultural land in the Al Fayyum
basin, draining into the large saltwater Al Fayyum lake; the lake was freshwater in prehistory, known as Lake Moeris. The capital of Al Fayyum, Medinet –  Al Fayyum , is 81 mi (130 km) southwest of Cairo . The Al Fayyum proper is an oasis in the Lybian Desert , its eastern border being about 15 mi west of the Nile .

 mentioned, is encircled by the Libyan hills. The lowest part of the province, the north-west end, is occupied by the Birket ci Kerun, or Lake of the Horns, whose surface level is 140ft
(43 m) below sea-level. The lake covers about 78 mile² (200 km²) Differing from the typical oasis, whose fertility depends on water obtained from springs, the cultivated land in the Al Fayyum is formed of Nile mud brought down by the Bahr Yusuf. From this channel, 15 mile (24 km) in length from Lahun, at the entrance of the gap in the hills, to Medina, several canals branch off and by these the province is irrigated, the drainage water flowing into the Birket ci Kerun.

Over 400 mile² (1,000 km²) of the Al Fayyum is cultivated, the chief crops being cereals and cotton . The completion of the Aswan first dam by ensuring a fuller supply of water enabled 20,000 acres (80 km²) of land, previously unirrigated and untaxed, to be brought under cultivation in the three years 1903-1905. Three Crops are obtained in twenty months. The province is noted for its figs and grapes, the figs being of exceptional quality.

Olvies are also cultivated .Rose trees are very numerous and most of the attar of roses of Egypt is manufactured in the province. The Fayyoum also possesses an excellent breed of sheep. Lake Kerun abounds in fish, notably the bulti (Nile carp), of which considerable quantities are sent to Cairo.
   
Wadi El Hittan

much-frequented weekly market. The Bahr Yusuf runs through the town, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over the stream: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and one of two
arches over which is built the Kait Bey mosque. Mounds north of the town mark the site of Arsinoe, known to the anceint Greeks as Crocodilopolis, where in ancient times the sacred crocodile kept in the Lake of Moeris was worshipped. Besides Medina there are several other towns in the province, among them Senuris and Tomia to the north of Medina and Senaru and Auuksa on the road to the lake. There are also, especially in the neighborhood of the lake, many ruins of ancient villages and cities. The Fayum is the site of Lake Moeris of the ancient Egyptians, a lake of which Birket ci Kerun is the shrunken remnant.