Qarun lake for Antiquity known as Merid (Greek: Μοῖρις:Moeris Lake) is a lake in northern Egypt in the Fayum Governorate
Lake view
The Bar Jusuf canal fills it with fresh water from the Nile, and since it doesn't go anywhere, it evaporates, so its water is brackish.
History
Qarun lake is a remnant of the much larger ancient Lake Merid, which once occupied a large area of depression - Oasis of Fayyum in Egypt. filled with depression. The level of the lake gradually declined until about the 10th millennium BC, when it was about 4 1/2 m below sea level, perhaps because the connection with the Nile River was temporarily severed. At the beginning of the Neolithic, the lake rose again and gradually calmed down. During the Neolithic and the Old Kingdom, the first inhabitants settled along its reduced shores.
Only the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom (around 2040 BC-1786 BC) tried to stop the gradual backfilling of the canal that connected the lake with the Nile. Probably Senusret II or Amenemhat III widened and deepened the canal, thus putting the lake back into hydraulic balance with the river. The lake was then located at an altitude of 17 m and served as a flood retention, which takes over excess water from excessively high Nile floods and as an accumulation whose waters could be used for irrigation after the Nile floods subsided. When Herodotus visited the lake around 450 BC, he assumed it was an artificial lake because he was told it had been excavated at least 900 years earlier.
Large reclamation works in the Oasis of Fayum were carried out by the Ptolemaic kings. During the reign of Ptolemy II of Philadelphia in the 3rd century BC. the lake was partially drained by a dam that restricted the entry of water from the Nile into it. Fertile alluvial soil that was drained (approximately 1,200 km²) was irrigated by canals and subjected to intensive tillage.
Thus, the population around the lake increased sharply, as did the number of new towns. Today's excavations of several archeological sites have yielded a rich harvest of Hellenistic, Roman papyri. The oasis of Fayum continued to prosper during the first two centuries of Roman rule, but after that it began to stagnate and decay. The water level in the lake continued to fall, leading to a shallow and relatively small lake nowadays.
In 2012, Qarun lake was included in the list of sites of the Ramsar Convention, as an important habitat for migratory birds
Characteristics
Qarun lake has an area of 233 km, is 40 km long from west to east and is up to 5.7 km wide. It is on average 4.2 m deep and lies in a geological depression at 43 meters below sea level.Lake view
The Bar Jusuf canal fills it with fresh water from the Nile, and since it doesn't go anywhere, it evaporates, so its water is brackish.
History
Qarun lake is a remnant of the much larger ancient Lake Merid, which once occupied a large area of depression - Oasis of Fayyum in Egypt. filled with depression. The level of the lake gradually declined until about the 10th millennium BC, when it was about 4 1/2 m below sea level, perhaps because the connection with the Nile River was temporarily severed. At the beginning of the Neolithic, the lake rose again and gradually calmed down. During the Neolithic and the Old Kingdom, the first inhabitants settled along its reduced shores.
Only the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom (around 2040 BC-1786 BC) tried to stop the gradual backfilling of the canal that connected the lake with the Nile. Probably Senusret II or Amenemhat III widened and deepened the canal, thus putting the lake back into hydraulic balance with the river. The lake was then located at an altitude of 17 m and served as a flood retention, which takes over excess water from excessively high Nile floods and as an accumulation whose waters could be used for irrigation after the Nile floods subsided. When Herodotus visited the lake around 450 BC, he assumed it was an artificial lake because he was told it had been excavated at least 900 years earlier.
Large reclamation works in the Oasis of Fayum were carried out by the Ptolemaic kings. During the reign of Ptolemy II of Philadelphia in the 3rd century BC. the lake was partially drained by a dam that restricted the entry of water from the Nile into it. Fertile alluvial soil that was drained (approximately 1,200 km²) was irrigated by canals and subjected to intensive tillage.
Thus, the population around the lake increased sharply, as did the number of new towns. Today's excavations of several archeological sites have yielded a rich harvest of Hellenistic, Roman papyri. The oasis of Fayum continued to prosper during the first two centuries of Roman rule, but after that it began to stagnate and decay. The water level in the lake continued to fall, leading to a shallow and relatively small lake nowadays.
In 2012, Qarun lake was included in the list of sites of the Ramsar Convention, as an important habitat for migratory birds
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