| Lake Qarun | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Moeris | |||||||||||
 Satellite image of the Faiyum Oasis, with Lake Qarun in its interior | |||||||||||
| Location | Faiyum Governorate, Egypt | ||||||||||
| Primary inflows | Nile River (via the Bahr Yussef) | ||||||||||
| Basin countries | Egypt | ||||||||||
| Surface area | 202 km2 (78 mi2) – ancient area estimated between 1,270 km2 (490 mi2) and 1,700 km2 (660 mi2) | ||||||||||
| Surface elevation | 43 m (141 ft) below sea-level | ||||||||||
| Frozen | No | ||||||||||
| Settlements | Cairo, Faiyum | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Lake Moeris (Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις, genitive Μοίριδος) was an ancient endorheic freshwater lake located in the Faiyum Oasis, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt, which persists today at a fraction of its former size as the hypersaline Lake Qarun (Arabic: بركة قارون). In prehistory it was fed intermittently by the Nile via the ancient Hawara Channel, fluctuating in level throughout the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.[2] The prehistoric Lake Moeris spanned much of the area of the modern Faiyum Oasis, with a total area estimated at between 1,270 km2 (490 sq mi) and 1,700 km2 (660 sq mi).
During the Middle Kingdom, excavation of the Hawara Channel to create the canal now known as the Bahr Yussef increased the volume of inflow into Lake Moeris, and concurrent drainage and land reclamation projects would see the lake exploited for agricultural purposes.[3] Further drainage and reclamation during the early Ptolemaic Kingdom effectively severed Lake Moeris' direct connection to the Nile and began a gradual trend of recession that continued through the Roman, medieval and early modern periods, resulting in the Lake Qarun of the present day.[4] The modern lake's surface is 43 m (141 ft) below sea-level, and covers about 202 km2 (78 sq mi).
A number of Eurasian water bird species migrating from more northerly latitudes use Lake Qarun as a wintering ground,[5] and as such the lake and its surroundings constitute a protected area under Egyptian law. Its high salinity has led to most Nilotic freshwater fish species disappearing from the lake, although a number of saltwater or otherwise salt-tolerant species have been introduced to its waters to bolster the local fishing economy; major fisheries in the area include tilapia, mullet and sole.[6] Lake Qarun was designated a Ramsar site in 2012.[1]
Lake Moeris lends its name to the extinct proboscidean mammal Moeritherium, a distant relative of modern elephants first described from the nearby Qasr el Sagha Formation.
- ^ a b "Lake Qarun Protected Area". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ Hayes, William C. (1964). "Most Ancient Egypt: Chapter I. The Formation of the Land". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 23 (2): 73–114. doi:10.1086/371762. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 543676.
- ^ Van de Mieroop, Marc (2011). A history of ancient Egypt. Blackwell history of the ancient world (1. publ ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-6070-4.
- ^ "Lake Moeris". Brown University. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
- ^ El-Shabrawy, Gamal M.; Dumont, Henri J. (2009), Dumont, Henri J. (ed.), "The Fayum Depression and Its Lakes", The Nile, vol. 89, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 95–124, doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9726-3_6, ISBN 978-1-4020-9725-6, retrieved 2024-03-01
- ^ El-Serafy, Sabry S.; El-Haweet, Alaa El-Din A.; El-Ganiny, Azza A.; El-Far, Alaa M. (April 2014). "Qarun Lake Fisheries : Fishing Gears , Species Composition and Catch per Unit Effort". Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries. 18 (2): 39–49. doi:10.12816/0011075.