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Second and third theories. Reasons against them. Ideas of the common people in regard to the inundation. Story of King Pheron. His punishment. Sequel of the story of King Pheron. Nilometers. Use of Nilometers. Enormous structures of Egypt. Comparative antiquity of various objects. Great age of the Pyramids. Egypt a mark for the conqueror. Its relation to Persia.
From the very earliest times, says Ebers, the Pharaohs had understood the necessity of measuring exactly the amount or deficiency of the inundations of the Nile, and Nilometers are preserved which were erected high up the river in Nubia by kings of the Old Empire, by princes, that is to say, who reigned before the invasion of the Hyksos.
Careful about all that related to the Egyptian revenues, Assama commanded the keeping up of the various Nilometers, which still served to regulate the assessment of the ground tax. In the year 718 he learned that the Nilometer established at Helwan, a little below Fostât, had fallen in, and hastened to report the fact to the caliph.
In place of the old Nilometers, the amount of the rise of the Nile is now reported by telegraph from meteorological stations. It is popularly supposed that at every rise the plains of the Delta are inundated, but this is not the case. The actual overflow of the banks of the river and canals is the exception, and when it happens is most disastrous.
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