a Menufia, or Menuf canal, connects the two branches of the
Nile and supplies water to the large number of canals in the central
part of the Delta. Following the right (eastern) bank of the Damietta
branch is the Rayya Tewfiki, known below Benha as the Mansuria, and
below Mansura as the Fareskur, canal. This canal has many branches.
Farther east are other canals, of which the most remarkable occupy in
part the beds of the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches. That following the
old Tanitic channel is called the canal of Al-Mo'izz, the first
Fatimite caliph who ruled in Egypt, having been dug by his orders, and
the latter bears the name of the canal of Abu-l-Muneggi, a Jew who
executed this work, under the caliph Al-Amir, in order to water the
province called the Sharkia. From this circumstance this canal is also
known as the Sharkawia. From a town on its bank it is called in its
lower course the Shibini canal. The superfluous water from all the
Delta canals is drained off by _bahrs_ (rivers) into the coast lakes.
The Ismailia or Fresh-water canal branches from the Nile at Cairo and
follows, in the main, the course of the canal which anciently joined
the Nile and the Red Sea. It dates from Pharaonic times, having been
begun by "Sesostris," continued by Necho II. and by Darius Hystaspes,
and at length finished by Ptolemy Philadelphus. This canal, having
fallen into disrepair, was restored in the 7th century A.D. by the
Arabs who conquered Egypt, but appears not long afterwards to have
again become unserviceable. The existing canal was dug in 1863 to
supply fresh water to the towns on the Suez Canal. Although designed
for irrigation purposes, the Delta canals are also used for the
transport of passengers and goods.

In Upper Egypt the most important canals are the Ibrahimia and the
Bahr Yusuf (the River of Joseph). They are both on the west side of
the Nile. The Ibrahimia takes its water from the Nile at Assiut, and
runs south to below Beni Suef. It now supplies the Bahr Yusuf, which
runs parallel with and west of the Ibrahimia, until it diverges to
supply the Fayum--a distance of some 350 m. It leaves the Ibrahimia at
Derut near its original point of departure from the Nile. Although the
Joseph whence it takes its name is the celebrated Saladin, it is
related that he merely repaired it, and it is not doubted to be of a
much earlier period. Most probably it was