Bahr Yûsuf

The great canal which runs parallel with the Nile on the west side, commencing in the Crocodilopolite Nome nearly opposite Akhmim, and joining the Nile at the modern El Wasta in the Arsinoite Nome, a distance by river of 350 miles. It is rather a continuous series of canals than one, and it is only navigable throughout its length during the inundation. "It is evident from Strabo and Ptolemy that, in their time, the important canal known as the Bahr Yûsuf did not flow as it does now. If, as is probably the case, its bed is natural, and not the work of man, a great part of it would have been silted up in the time of the Greek writers, and according to an Arab tradition it was reopened by the famous Sultan Salad in, who then gave it his name of Yusuf." We are thus led to the conclusion that, according to the Greek writers, the Bahr Yusuf in its present course cannot be very old. It is probably a work of nature enlarged and modified by the hand of man. Po ibly the kings of the XIIth Dynasty may have begun this system of water regulation in connection with the works of Lake Moeris, which is always attributed to them. After Derut the Bahr Yusuf changes its name succe ively to Ibrahimiyeh, Sohagiyeh, and Raifm. Its ancient name is unknown.