An account of some recent researches near Cairo, undertaken with the view of throwing light upon the geological history of the alluvial land of Egypt

Abstract

In the first part of this Memoir, read on the 8th of February, 1855, and published in Part I. of the Transactions of that year, the author states the main object of the inquiry to have been, to endeavour, by probing the alluvial land in appropriate places, to discover the probable time that has elapsed since the lowest layer of Nile sediment was deposited, and thus to connect geological and historical time. This object, in the opinion of the author, can only be attained by means of shafts and borings of the soil in the immediate neighbourhood of monuments of a known age. The places he selected for these excavations were the vicinity of the Obelisk of Heliopolis, and the site of ancient Memphis. The general introductory matter, and the analyses of the various soils penetrated, together with a description of the researches at Heliopolis, are given in the first part of the memoir; but the author deferred his general conclusions, and all inferences as to the secular increase of the alluvial deposits, until he should have an opportunity of laying before the Society an account of the more extensive researches in the district of Memphis. That account, together with the author’s general conclusions, form the subject of this second part. The practical part of the whole inquiry has been conducted under the immediate direction of Hekekyan Bey, an Armenian engineer officer in the service of the Viceroy of Egypt; and a brief biographical account of him is given, showing his eminent scientific qualifications for such researches. The author had the advantage of obtaining the zealous cooperation of our Consul-General in Egypt, the Honourable Charles Augustus Murray, and his successor, the Honourable Frederick Bruce, on whose representations the late Viceroy Abbas Pacha, and the present, not only gave a ready assent to the undertaking, but, with a rare and most exemplary liberality, ordered that the whole expense should be defrayed by the Egyptian Government.