View source for Lake Moeris

{{Short description|Ancient endorheic lake in Egypt}}
{{Infobox lake
| name               = Lake Qarun
| image              = Satellite image of the Faiyum Oasis.jpg
| caption            = Satellite image of the Faiyum Oasis, with Lake Qarun in its interior
| alt                =
| location           = Faiyum Governorate, Egypt
| inflow             = Nile River (via the Bahr Yussef)
| outflow            =
| catchment          =
| basin_countries    = Egypt
| length             =
| width              =
| area               = 202 km<sup>2</sup> (78 mi<sup>2</sup>) – ancient area estimated between 1,270&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (490 mi<sup>2</sup>) and 1,700&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (660 mi<sup>2</sup>)
| volume             =
| residence_time     =
| shore              =
| elevation          = 43 m (141 ft) below sea-level
| islands            =
| cities             = Cairo, Faiyum
| reference          =
| pushpin_map        =
| pushpin_map_alt    =
| pushpin_map_caption =
| frozen             = No
| module             = {{Designation list
| designation1 = Ramsar
| designation1_offname = Lake Qarun Protected Area
| designation1_date = 4 June 2012
| designation1_number = 2040<ref name=RSIS>{{cite web |title=Lake Qarun Protected Area |publisher=[[Ramsar Convention|Ramsar]] Sites Information Service |url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2040 |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>}}
| other_name         = Lake Moeris
}}
'''Lake Moeris''' ({{langx|grc|Μοῖρις}}, genitive Μοίριδος) was an ancient [[endorheic lake|endorheic]] [[Fresh water|freshwater]] lake located in the [[Faiyum Oasis]], {{convert|80|km|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]], which persists today at a fraction of its former size as the [[hypersaline lake|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.<ref name="Hayes-1964">{{Cite journal |last=Hayes |first=William C. |date=1964 |title=Most Ancient Egypt: Chapter I. The Formation of the Land |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/543676 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=73–114 |doi=10.1086/371762 |jstor=543676 |issn=0022-2968}}</ref> The prehistoric Lake Moeris spanned much of the area of the modern Faiyum Oasis, with a total area estimated at between {{cvt|1,270|km2|sqmi}} and {{cvt|1,700|km2|sqmi}}.
During the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|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.<ref name="Van de Mieroop-2011">{{Cite book |last=Van de Mieroop |first=Marc |title=A history of ancient Egypt |date=2011 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-6070-4 |edition=1. publ |series=Blackwell history of the ancient world |location=Chichester}}</ref> 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 Egypt|Roman]], [[Middle Ages|medieval]] and [[Early modern period|early modern]] periods, resulting in the Lake Qarun of the present day.<ref name="Brown University">{{cite web |title=Lake Moeris |publisher=[[Brown University]] |url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/afterpharaohs2010/13390.html |access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref> The modern lake's surface is {{cvt|43|m|ft}} below sea-level, and covers about {{cvt|202|km2|sqmi}}.
A number of [[Eurasia]]n [[water bird]] species [[Bird migration|migrating]] from more northerly latitudes use Lake Qarun as a [[Overwintering|wintering ground]],<ref name="El-Shabrawy-2009">{{Citation |last1=El-Shabrawy |first1=Gamal M. |title=The Fayum Depression and Its Lakes |date=2009 |work=The Nile |volume=89 |pages=95–124 |editor-last=Dumont |editor-first=Henri J. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4020-9726-3_6 |access-date=2024-03-01 |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-9726-3_6 |isbn=978-1-4020-9725-6 |last2=Dumont |first2=Henri J.}}</ref> and as such the lake and its surroundings constitute a [[Egyptian Protectorates|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 [[Fish stocking|introduced to its waters]] to bolster the local fishing economy; major fisheries in the area include [[tilapia]], [[Mullet (fish)|mullet]] and [[Sole (fish)|sole]].<ref name="El-Serafy-2014">{{Cite journal |last1=El-Serafy |first1=Sabry S. |last2=El-Haweet |first2=Alaa El-Din A. |last3=El-Ganiny |first3=Azza A. |last4=El-Far |first4=Alaa M. |date=April 2014 |title=Qarun Lake Fisheries : Fishing Gears , Species Composition and Catch per Unit Effort |url=http://platform.almanhal.com/CrossRef/Preview/?ID=2-63429 |journal=Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=39–49 |doi=10.12816/0011075|doi-access=free }}</ref> Lake Qarun was designated a [[Ramsar site]] in 2012.<ref name="RSIS" />
Lake Moeris lends its name to the [[Extinction|extinct]] [[proboscidea]]n [[mammal]] ''[[Moeritherium]]'', a distant relative of modern [[elephant]]s first described from the nearby [[Qasr el Sagha Formation]].
== Etymology ==
{{Hiero | ''mer-wer'' (Moeris) | <hiero>N36:wr-n:n:n</hiero> | align=right | era=default}}
The name "Lake Moeris" is derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] translation (''[[:wiktionary:Μοῖρῐς|Μοῖρῐς]] [[:wiktionary:λίμνη|λίμνη]]'' ''Limne Moeris'') of the [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] place-name ''[[:wiktionary:mr-wr|mr-wr]]'' (lit. "Great Canal").<ref name=ucla-book>{{cite book |last1=Wendrich |first1=Willeke |last2=Holdaway |first2=Simon J. |year=2017 |chapter=Landscape archaeology of the desert Fayum |editor1-last=Holdaway |editor1-first=Simon J. |editor2-last=Wendrich |editor2-first=Willeke |title=The Desert Fayum Reinvestigated: The early to mid-Holocene landscape archaeology of the Fayum north shore, Egypt |publisher=The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press |location=Los Angeles, CA |isbn=9781938770500 |page=1 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/49t6s1b9 |access-date=April 20, 2023}}</ref> This name is likely a reference to the [[Bahr Yussef]], and as the pharaoh responsible for its construction Amenemhat&nbsp;III was referred to by the Greeks as "King Moeris".<ref name=ucla-book/><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Negm |editor1-first=Abdelazim M. |editor2-last=Abdel-Fattah |editor2-first=Sommer |year=2018 |title=Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Versus Aswan High Dam: A view from Egypt |publisher=[[Springer Nature|Springer]] |location=[[Cham, Switzerland]] |page=361}}</ref> During the time of [[Late Egyptian]], the lake was referred to as the ''[[Faiyum#Etymology|Piôm]]'', a name derived from the Egyptian phrase ''[[:wiktionary:pꜣ|pꜣ]]-[[:wiktionary:ym#Egyptian|ym]]''  (lit. "the Sea");<ref>{{EB1911|noprescript=1|wstitle=Moeris, Lake of}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1=Lesko, L. H.|editor2=Lesko, B. S.|title=A Dictionary of Late Egyptian|volume=1|pages=28, 145|publisher=B.C. Scribe Publications|location=[[Providence, RI]]|date=2002|edition=2nd}}</ref> ''Piôm'' would later be transliterated into Coptic as [[wiktionary:ⲫⲓⲟⲙ|Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ]]/[[wiktionary:ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ|Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ]] (''epʰiom''/''peiom''), from which the modern [[Arabic]] name الفيوم (''el-Fayyūm'') (and by extension the [[Romanization|romanized]] ''Faiyum'') is derived.
== History ==
=== Prehistory ===
During the [[Messinian Salinity Crisis]] of the late [[Miocene]], the [[Nile]] flowed past the empty Faiyum basin at the bottom of a large [[canyon]] which reached some {{Convert|2.4|km|mi}} deep where the city of [[Cairo]] now sits.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=El Mahmoudi |first1=Ahmed |last2=Gabr |first2=Amir |date=February 2009 |title=Geophysical surveys to investigate the relation between the Quaternary Nile channels and the Messinian Nile canyon at East Nile Delta, Egypt |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12517-008-0018-9 |journal=Arabian Journal of Geosciences |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=53–67 |doi=10.1007/s12517-008-0018-9 |bibcode=2009ArJG....2...53E |issn=1866-7511}}</ref> Although the mechanism of the Faiyum basin's creation was subject to some scholarly debate among [[geologist]]s in the early 20th century, the consensus view remains that the basin itself emerged primarily as a consequence of [[Aeolian processes|wind erosion]].<ref name="Hayes-1964" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gardner |first=Elinor W. |date=1929 |title=The Origin of the Faiyum Depression: A Critical Commentary on a New View of Its Origin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1784253 |journal=The Geographical Journal |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=371–383 |doi=10.2307/1784253 |jstor=1784253 |bibcode=1929GeogJ..74..371G |issn=0016-7398}}</ref> After the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] re-flooded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became a gulf of the sea which extended inland to the site of present-day [[Kom Ombo]].<ref name="Cambridge Univ. Press-2005">{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge ancient history. Vol. 1, pt. 1: Prolegomena and prehistory |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-521-07051-5 |edition=3. ed., repr |location=Cambridge}}</ref> Over the course of geological time this inlet of the Mediterranean gradually filled with silt and became the [[Nile valley]].
Sometime prior to the [[Middle Paleolithic]], the silt of the Nile valley accumulated enough for the flooding Nile to overflow into the Faiyum basin through the Hawara Channel, creating the ancient Lake Moeris; this earliest iteration of the lake was fed solely by subsequent, intermittent floods of the Nile, and is thought to have dried up entirely at the end of the [[Paleolithic]] before reappearing at the beginning of the [[Neolithic]].<ref name="Hayes-1964" /> Stone flakes found along the margins of the Faiyum basin matching those produced by the [[Levallois technique]] suggest that the shores of Lake Moeris were inhabited by humans as far back as the Middle Paleolithic.<ref name="Hayes-1964" /><ref name="Cambridge Univ. Press-2005" /> Other archaeological work in the Faiyum basin, particularly that of [[Gertrude Caton Thompson|Gertrude Caton-Thompson]] and [[Elinor Wight Gardner]], has recovered evidence of numerous [[Epipalaeolithic|Epipaleolithic]] and Neolithic settlements.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Caton-Thompson |first1=Gertrude |title=The Desert Fayum |last2=Gardner |first2=Elinor |date=1934 |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |location=London}}</ref>
=== Initial Development: Old and Middle Kingdoms ===
Lake Moeris is first recorded from about 3000&nbsp;{{sc|BCE}}, around the time of [[Narmer]] ([[Menes]]). By the beginning of the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] a permanent settlement, Shedet, had been erected on the high ground of the lake's southeastern bank; Shedet would go on to become the major cult center of the [[Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian god]] [[Sobek]], an association which would lead to the city receiving the Greek name of ''Krokodeilópolis'' (Κροκοδειλόπολις, lit. "Crocodile City"), later rendered in [[Latin]] as ''Crocodīlopolis''. The modern city of [[Faiyum]] now occupies the site.
The first major manmade alterations to Lake Moeris occurred during the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] under the kings of the [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|Twelfth Dynasty]], who ruled from the Faiyum region following the move to the new royal capital of [[Itjtawy]]. [[Senusret II]] initiated [[irrigation]] and [[land reclamation]] projects to free up portions of the lake interior for agricultural use, pushing the edge of the lake further outwards from Shedet.<ref name="Van de Mieroop-2011" /> His grandson [[Amenemhat III]] went on to commission an extensive excavation of the Hawara Channel, creating the canal known today as the [[Bahr Yussef]]. This canal increased the volume of water flowing into Lake Moeris from the Nile to more effectively irrigate the Faiyum basin, transforming it into a major agricultural center, and as a result, Amenemhat III was later known in Greek as "King Moeris".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Viollet |first1=Pierre-Louis |title=Water engineering in ancient civilizations: 5.000 years of history |last2=Holly |first2=Forrest M. |date=2007 |publisher=IAHR International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research |isbn=978-90-78046-05-9 |series=IAHR monograph series |location=Madrid}}</ref> In addition to its role as a freshwater reservoir, the lake was also used as part of a freight transport system; basalt blocks mined from a nearby quarry were conveyed to the lake via the [[Lake Moeris Quarry Road]], the oldest known paved road in the world. From the lake, the blocks could be shipped to the [[Giza Necropolis]] to be used in the construction of temples and monuments. The [[American Society of Civil Engineers|ASCE]] has entered the Quarry Road into its [[List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lake Moeris Quarry Road |website=asce.org |publisher=[[American Society of Civil Engineers]] |url=https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/lake-moeris-quarry-road |access-date=2022-01-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=8 May 1994 |title=World's oldest paved road found in Egypt |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/08/world/world-s-oldest-paved-road-found-in-egypt.html |access-date=2018-08-29}}</ref>
<imagemap>
File:Lake Moeris.jpg|thumb|500px|right|An [[image map]] of notable monuments in the vicinity of the former Lake Moeris. The hatched area denotes land reclaimed by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty.
rect 718 628 871 711 [[Abgig obelisk]]
rect 936 453 1207 509 [[Pedestals of Biahmu]]
rect 858 548 1148 607 [[Faiyum#Ancient history|Crocodilopolis]]
rect 999 699 1260 744 [[Amenemhat_III#Hawara|Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara]]
rect 1108 755 1397 833 [[Pyramid of Senusret II]]
rect 1398 476 1620 1122 [[Nile River]]
desc none
</imagemap>[[File:Biahmu 05.JPG|left|thumb|Ruins of one of the [[Pedestals of Biahmu]]]]
In his book ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', the Greek historian [[Herodotus]] claims to have visited Lake Moeris, situating it below the [[Labyrinth of Egypt]] and opposite the ancient city of [[Crocodilopolis]] (i.e., the modern city of Faiyum).<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Herodotus]] |title=[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]] |at=2.148–150}}</ref> Herodotus also states that two "pyramids" (interpreted to be the [[Pedestals of Biahmu]]) stood in the middle of the lake,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Alan B. |year=1975 |title=Herodotus: Book&nbsp;II Commentary 99–182 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-07737-9 |place=[[Leiden]], NL |page=126}}</ref> a claim that led the British [[Egyptology|Egyptologist]] [[Flinders Petrie]] to hypothesize that the lake was flooded when Herodotus had visited the area.<ref name=petrie>{{cite book |last=Petrie |first=W.M.F. |author-link=Flinders Petrie |year=1889 |title=Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe |publisher=[[Leadenhall Press|Field & Tuer]] |place=London, UK |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0kXAAAAYAAJ |access-date=October 4, 2022}}</ref> The immense waterworks undertaken by the kings of the [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|Twelfth Dynasty]] to transform the lake into a freshwater reservoir left classical geographers and geographers such as Herodotus with the impression that the lake itself was an artificial excavation<ref name="El-Shabrawy-2009" /><ref>{{cite CE1913|last=Hyvernat|first=Eugène Xavier Louis Henri|wstitle=Egypt}}</ref> – an interpretation not borne out by modern evidence.
=== Later Development: Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt ===
Following the death of [[Alexander the Great]], Egypt came under the control of his former general [[Ptolemy I Soter|Ptolemy]], who would become the first king of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]]. With this new governance and the concurrent influx of Greek and Macedonian colonists into Egypt, the Faiyum basin and Lake Moeris was developed further to enhance its capacity as an agricultural center. The royal engineers of [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] constructed additional canals and levees, as well as a dam on the Bahr Yussef to regulate the inflow of the Nile, allowing for further settlement of the basin and increased grain production as the lake's waters receded and exposed new fertile soils.<ref name="Van de Mieroop-2011" /><ref name="Brown University" /> Numerous [[Papyrus|papyri]] recovered from Ptolemaic-era sites in the Faiyum (often from waste papyrus used for [[cartonnage]]) preserve correspondence between engineers and administrators during this period of development, including the archive of [[Zenon of Kaunos]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Dorothy |title=Agriculture in Egypt: from pharaonic to modern times |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-726183-5 |editor-last=Bowman |editor-first=Alan K. |series=Proceedings of the British Academy |location=Oxford |pages=107–122 |editor-last2=Rogan |editor-first2=Eugene L. |editor-last3=British Academy}}</ref> The impeded flow of the Nile into Lake Moeris following the construction of the dam marked the beginning of the lake's gradual evaporative shrinkage, a process that would ultimately result in the diminished Lake Qarun of the modern era.
By the end of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]], routine maintenance of this irrigation system had been neglected due to internal strife, causing croplands within the Faiyum to either dry up or become totally inundated. The [[Roman Egypt|annexation of Egypt as a Roman province]] saw the renovation of Lake Moeris' hydraulic works by Roman troops under [[Augustus]], thereby contributing to Egypt's status as the [[breadbasket]] of the early [[Roman Empire]]. The revitalization of agriculture within the Faiyum was met with another wave of settlement and the area saw sustained productivity until the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], when another civil war destabilized the region and the irrigation system once again fell into disrepair. Following this period of unrest the emperor [[Probus (emperor)|Probus]], much like Augustus, employed Roman soldiers to re-renovate the canals and dykes and the area became productive once again, though over time the systems were yet again neglected and the Roman settlements became defunct; the area is thought to have been mostly abandoned by the 5th century, with only a small area in the interior of the Faiyum basin remaining cultivated and inhabited through the remainder of the [[Middle Ages]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boak |first=A. E. R. |date=1926 |title=Irrigation and Population in the Faiyum, the Garden of Egypt |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/208706 |journal=Geographical Review |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=353–364 |doi=10.2307/208706 |jstor=208706 |bibcode=1926GeoRv..16..353B |issn=0016-7428}}</ref>
== Ecology and Fisheries ==
[[File:Egretta garzetta at Fayoum by Hatem Moushir 6.JPG|left|thumb|[[Little egret]]s and many other Eurasian water birds migrate to Lake Qarun for the winter.]]
In the present day, Lake Qarun serves as a wintering or nesting ground for nearly 88 different species of [[water bird]]s. [[Collared pratincole]]s, [[Kentish plover|Kentish]] and [[Kittlitz's plover]]s and [[little tern]]s all gather at the lake to breed, while Eurasian winter migrants include [[Black-necked grebe|black-necked]] and [[great crested grebe]]s, [[Great egret|great]] and [[little egret]]s, and a variety of duck species such as [[common shelduck]]s, [[Eurasian teal]]s, [[Eurasian wigeon]]s, [[northern pintail]]s, [[northern shoveler]]s and [[tufted duck]]s.<ref name="El-Shabrawy-2009" /><ref name="Fouda-2012">{{Cite web |last=Fouda |first=Mostafa |date=March 26, 2012 |title=Lake Qarun Protected Area |url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/EG2040RIS.pdf |access-date=March 18, 2024 |website=Ramsar Sites Information Service}}</ref> Lake Qarun's status as crucial bird habitat has led to its designation as both an [[Egyptian Protectorates|Egyptian protectorate]] and a [[Ramsar site]].<ref name="Fouda-2012" />
[[File:Lake qarun protected area by Hatem Moushir 1.JPG|thumb|Lake Qarun as seen from the Lake Qarun Protected Area]]
The increasing [[salinity]] and [[turbidity]] of Lake Qarun has been implicated in the [[Local extinction|extirpation]] of most Nilotic fish species originally present in the lake, such as [[Nile perch]] and [[Nile tilapia]]; a few species like [[redbelly tilapia]] appear to have weathered this trend. To prevent the collapse of the local fishing economy in the wake of changing environmental conditions, a variety of marine and salt-tolerant fish and crustacean species have been transplanted to the lake since the early 20th century, including [[big-scale sand smelt]], [[Egyptian sole]], [[European seabass]] and [[gilt-head bream]], as well as multiple species of both [[Mullet (fish)|mullet]] and [[prawn]].<ref name="El-Shabrawy-2009" /> Introduced mullets and sole, along with the native tilapia, remain the largest commercial fisheries in Lake Qarun,<ref name="El-Serafy-2014" /> but factors such as continued evaporation of the lake, increased pollution from agricultural runoff and invasive [[Cymothoidae|cymothoid isopods]] have caused fish catches to drop off sharply over the past decade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abdelmageed |first1=Adel Ali. |last2=Khalifa |first2=Usama |last3=Elsaied |first3=Hosam E. |last4=Hamouda |first4=Amr Z. |last5=El Gelani |first5=Safaa S. |date=December 2022 |title=Lake Qarun between entangled history and blurred future: Retrospectives and prospective |journal=The Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=299–306 |doi=10.1016/j.ejar.2022.11.001 |issn=1687-4285|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|25em}}
==Sources==
* {{cite web |title=Fayum Project |website=trismegistos.org |publisher=[[KU Leuven|University of Leuven]] |url=http://www.trismegistos.org/fayum/ }}
* {{cite book |first=Hubert |last=Chanson |year=1999 |section=Study of the Moeris reservoir, the Ha-Uar Dam and the canal connecting the Nile River and Lake Moeris |title=The Hydraulics of Open Channel Flow: An introduction |edition=1st |id=Major Problem&nbsp;2 |type=textbook |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann / Elsevier Science, Technology, & Business |section-url=http://www.bh.com/companions/0340740671/exercises/prob2.htm |via=bh.com |url-status=dead <!-- presumed --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113220455/http://www.bh.com/companions/0340740671/exercises/prob2.htm |archive-date=2008-01-13 }}
;Attribution: {{EB1911 |last=Griffith |first=Francis Llewellyn |authorlink=Francis Llewellyn Griffith |wstitle=Moeris, Lake of }}
==External links==
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Mœris |short=x}}
* {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Mœris |short=x}}
{{National Parks of Egypt}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Faiyum Governorate]]
[[Category:Lakes of Egypt|Moeris]]
[[Category:Shrunken lakes|Moeris]]
[[Category:National parks of Egypt]]
[[Category:Geography of ancient Egypt]]
[[Category:Ramsar sites in Egypt]]