Lake Moeris
The Ancient Egyptian Sadd-el-Kafara Dam at Wadi Al-Garawi, about south of Cairo, was long at its base and wide. The structure was built around 2800 or 2600 BC as a diversion dam for flood control, but was destroyed by heavy rain during construction or shortly afterwards. During the Twelfth Dynasty in the 19th century BC, the Pharaohs Senosert III, Amenemhat III, and Amenemhat IV dug a canal long linking the Fayum Depression to the Nile in Middle Egypt. Two dams called Ha-Uar running east-west were built to retain water during the annual flood and then release it to surrounding lands. The lake called "Mer-wer" or Lake Moeris covered and is known today as Birket Qarun.