Note 54 — Chapter XI · THE CATARACT AND THE DESERT.

“The most important discovery which we have made here, and which I shall only mention briefly, is a series of short rock inscriptions, which mark the highest rises of the Nile during a series of years under the government of Amenemhat III and of his immediate successors.... They proved that the river, above four thousand years ago, rose more than twenty-four feet higher than now, and thereby must have produced totally different conditions in the inundation and in the whole surface of the ground, both above and below this spot.”—Lepsius’ Letters from Egypt, etc. Letter xxvi.

“The highest rise of the Nile in each year at Semneh was registered by a mark indicating the year of the king’s reign, cut in the granite, either on one of the blocks forming the foundation of the fortress or on the cliff, and particularly on the east or right bank, as best adapted for the purpose. Of these markings eighteen still remain, thirteen of them having been made in the reign of Mœris (Amenemhat III) and five in the time of his next two successors.... We have here presented to us the remarkable facts that the highest of the records now legible, viz: that of the thirtieth year of the reign of Amenemhat, according to exact measurements which I made, is 8.17 meters (twenty-six feet eight inches) higher than the highest level to which the Nile rises in years of the greatest floods; and, further, that the lowest mark, which is on the east bank, and indicated the fifteenth year of the same king, is still 4.14 meters (thirteen feet six and a half inches); and the single mark on the west bank, indicating the ninth year, is 2.77 meters (nine feet) above the highest level.”—Lepsius’ Letter to Professor Ehrenburg. See Appendix to the above.