Lake Moeris

Lake Moeris (genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient artificially-fed endoheric lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area estimated to vary between and .
It persists today as a smaller saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is below sea-level, and covers about . The lake and surrounding area is a protected area and has been designated as a Ramsar site since 2012.
It is a source for tilapia and other fish from the local area.
The prehistoric mammal Moeritherium was found in this area.
History
When the Mediterranean Sea was a hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now). After the Mediterranean reflooded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland farther than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile valley.
Eventually, the Nile valley bed silted up high enough for the flooding Nile to overflow into the Faiyum hollow, making a lake in it; however, for the most part it could only be fed intermittently, by high flood waters. The lake was bordered by neolithic settlements, and the town of Shedet grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge. The lake is first recorded from about 3000 , around the time of Narmer (Menes).
In 2300 , the waterway from the Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal, now known as the Bahr Yussef, to better feed the lake. The project was started by or perhaps by his father and served three purposes:
Control the flooding of the Nile
Regulate the water level of the Nile during dry seasons
Provide the surrounding area with irrigation water
There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry periods.
The lake was also used as part of a freight transport system: The remnants of the Lake Moeris Quarry Road, the oldest known paved road in the world, were found near the lake. It was used to convey basalt blocks from a nearby quarry to the lake; from the lake the blocks could be shipped to the Giza Necropolis for building and monument construction projects. The ASCE has entered it into its List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks.
Herodotus claims to have visited the lake in his book Histories, situating it below the Labyrinth of Egypt and opposite the ancient city Crocodilopolis (i.e., the modern city of Fayyum). Herodotus also states that "two pyramids" (interpreted to be the Pedestals of Biahmu) stood in the middle of the lake – a claim that led the British Egyptologist W.M.F. Petrie to hypothesize that the lake was flooded when Herodotus had visited the area.
The immense waterworks undertaken by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake into a huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial excavation, as reported by geographers and travelers during classical times. However, as the Classicist Alan B. Lloyd notes, this is erroneous:
"The Fayum basin is a natural formation created by wind erosion. The lake was created when an offshoot of the Nile, now known as the Bahr Yusuf, broke through the western cliffs and flooded the lower part of the basin."
Etymology
The name "Lake Moeris" is derived from the Greek translation (i.e., "Limne Moeris" Μοῖρῐς λίμνη) of the Egyptian place-name mr-wr, which means "Great Canal". The canal in question was likely the Bahr Yussef, and as the pharaoh responsible for its construction, Amenemhat III was referred to by the Greek as "King Moeris". During the time of Late Egyptian, the lake was referred to as the Piôm, a name derived from the Egyptian phrase pꜣ-ym (lit. "the Sea").
References
Sources
Attribution
External links
Faiyum Governorate
Moeris
Moeris
National parks of Egypt
Geography of ancient Egypt
Ramsar sites in Egypt