Lake Moeris (, genitive Μοίριδος) was an ancient

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

lake located in the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, which persists today at a fraction of its former size as the hypersaline Lake Qarun (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: بركة قارون). In

prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

it was fed intermittently by the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

via the ancient Hawara Channel, fluctuating in level throughout the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

and

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

periods. The prehistoric Lake Moeris spanned much of the area of the modern Faiyum Oasis, with a total area estimated at between and . 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 Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

and

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

projects would see the lake exploited for agricultural purposes. Further drainage and reclamation during the early

Ptolemaic Kingdom The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Ancient Egypt, Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a Diadochi, ...

effectively severed Lake Moeris' direct connection to the Nile and began a gradual trend of recession that continued through the Roman,

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

early modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

periods, resulting in the Lake Qarun of the present day. The modern lake's surface is below sea-level, and covers about . A number of

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

water bird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

species migrating from more northerly latitudes use Lake Qarun as a wintering ground, and as such the lake and its surroundings constitute a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

under Egyptian law. Its high salinity has led to most Nilotic

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

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. Lake Qarun was designated a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Lake Moeris lends its name to the

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

proboscidea Proboscidea (; , ) is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three l ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

'' Moeritherium'', a distant relative of modern

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

s first described from the nearby Qasr el Sagha Formation.

Etymology

The name "Lake Moeris" is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

translation ('' Μοῖρῐς λίμνη'' ''Limne Moeris'') of the

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

place-name '' mr-wr'' (lit. "Great Canal"). This name is likely a reference to the Bahr Yussef, and as the pharaoh responsible for its construction Amenemhat III was referred to by the Greeks as "King Moeris". In

Late Egyptian The Egyptian language, or Ancient Egyptian (; ), is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world fo ...

, the lake was referred to as the '' Piôm'', a name derived from the Egyptian phrase '' pꜣ- ym'' (lit. "the Sea"); ''Piôm'' would later be transliterated into Coptic as Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ/ Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ (''epʰiom''/''peiom''), from which the modern

name الفيوم (''el-Fayyūm'') (and by extension the

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

''Faiyum'') is derived.

History

Prehistory

During the

Messinian Salinity Crisis In the Messinian salinity crisis (also referred to as the Messinian event, and in its latest stage as the Lago Mare event) the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation (drying-up) throughout the latter part of ...

of the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, the

flowed past the empty Faiyum basin at the bottom of a large

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

which reached some deep where the city of

now sits. Although the mechanism of the Faiyum basin's creation was subject to some scholarly debate among

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

s in the early 20th century, the consensus view remains that the basin itself emerged primarily as a consequence of

wind erosion Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit material ...

. After the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

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. Over the course of geological time this inlet of the Mediterranean gradually filled with silt and became the

Nile valley The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

. Sometime prior to the

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle P ...

, 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

before reappearing at the beginning of the

. Stone flakes found along the margins of the Faiyum basin matching those produced by the

Levallois technique The Levallois technique () is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 400,000Shipton, C. (2022). Predetermined Refinement: The Earliest Levallois of the Kapthurin Formation. *Journal of ...

suggest that the shores of Lake Moeris were inhabited by humans as far back as the Middle Paleolithic. Other archaeological work in the Faiyum basin, particularly that of Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor Wight Gardner, has recovered evidence of numerous

Epipaleolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are someti ...

and Neolithic settlements.

Initial Development: Old and Middle Kingdoms

Lake Moeris is first recorded from about 3000 , around the time of

Narmer Narmer (, may mean "painful catfish", "stinging catfish", "harsh catfish", or "fierce catfish"; ) was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period, whose reign began at the end of the 4th millennium BC. He was the successor to the Prot ...

(

Menes Menes ( ; ; , probably pronounced *; and Μήν) was a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, credited by classical tradition with having united Upper and Lower Egypt, and as the founder of the First Dynasty. The identity of M ...

). By the beginning of the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

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 Egyptian god

Sobek Sobek (), also known as Suchus (), was an ancient Egyptian deities, ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and elastic history and nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile and is often represented as a crocodile-headed humanoid, if not a ...

, an association which would lead to the city receiving the Greek name of ''Krokodeilópolis'' (Κροκοδειλόπολις, lit. "Crocodile City"), later rendered in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as ''Crocodīlopolis''. The modern city of

Faiyum Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally f ...

now occupies the site. The first major manmade alterations to Lake Moeris occurred during the Middle Kingdom under the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, who ruled from the Faiyum region following the move to the new royal capital of Itjtawy. Senusret II initiated

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

and

projects to free up portions of the lake interior for agricultural use, pushing the edge of the lake further outwards from Shedet. His grandson

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...

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". 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 ASCE has entered the Quarry Road into its List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. File:Lake Moeris.jpg, 500px, 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

Crocodilopolis Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally f ...

rect 999 699 1260 744 Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara rect 1108 755 1397 833 Pyramid of Senusret II rect 1398 476 1620 1122

Nile River The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

desc none

In his book '' Histories'', the Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

claims to have visited Lake Moeris, situating it below the Labyrinth of Egypt and opposite the ancient city of

(i.e., the modern city of Faiyum). 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 Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

Flinders Petrie to hypothesize that the lake was flooded when Herodotus had visited the area. The immense waterworks undertaken by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty to transform the lake into a freshwater reservoir left classical geographers such as Herodotus with the impression that the lake itself was an artificial excavation – an interpretation not borne out by modern evidence.

Later Development: Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt

Following the death of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

, Egypt came under the control of his former general

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

, who would become the first king of the

Ptolemaic dynasty The Ptolemaic dynasty (; , ''Ptolemaioi''), also known as the Lagid dynasty (, ''Lagidai''; after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal house which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. ...

. 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. Numerous

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

recovered from Ptolemaic-era sites in the Faiyum (often from waste papyrus used for

cartonnage Cartonnage or cartonage is a type of material used in ancient Egyptian funerary masks from the First Intermediate Period to the Roman Empire, Roman era. It was made of layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster. Some of the Fayum mummy portr ...

) preserve correspondence between engineers and administrators during this period of development, including the archive of Zenon of Kaunos. 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

, 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 annexation of Egypt as a Roman province saw the renovation of Lake Moeris' hydraulic works by Roman troops under

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

, thereby contributing to Egypt's status as the

breadbasket The breadbasket of a country or of a region is an area which, because of the richness of the soil and/or advantageous climate, produces large quantities of wheat or other grain. Rice bowl is a similar term used to refer to Southeast Asia; Calif ...

of the early

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. 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 The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...

, when another civil war destabilized the region and the irrigation system once again fell into disrepair. Following this period of unrest the emperor

Probus Probus may refer to: People * Marcus Valerius Probus (c. 20/30–105 AD), Roman grammarian * Marcus Pomponius Maecius Probus, consul in 228 * Probus (emperor), Roman Emperor (276–282) * Probus of Byzantium (–306), Bishop of Byzantium from 293 t ...

, 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Ecology and fisheries

Egretta garzetta at Fayoum by Hatem Moushir 6

In the present day, Lake Qarun serves as a wintering or nesting ground for nearly 88 different species of

s. Collared pratincoles, Kentish and Kittlitz's plovers and

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name ''Sterna albifrons''. It was moved to the genus '' Sternula'' whe ...

s all gather at the lake to breed, while Eurasian winter migrants include black-necked and

great crested grebe The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds. The bird is characterised by its distinctive appearance, featuring striking black, orange-brown, and white plumage, and elaborate courtship displa ...

great Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

and little egrets, and a variety of duck species such as common shelducks,

Eurasian teal The Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca''), common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being th ...

Eurasian wigeon The Eurasian wigeon or European wigeon (''Mareca penelope''), also known as the widgeon or the wigeon, is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus ''Mareca''. It is common and widespread within its Palearctic range. Taxonomy T ...

northern pintail The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic Range (biology), distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is bird migration, migratory an ...

northern shoveler The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and throughout the Palearctic and across most of North America, and winters in southe ...

s and

tufted duck The tufted duck (or tufted pochard) (''Aythya fuligula'') is a small diving duck with a population of nearly one million birds, found in northern Eurasia. They are partially migratory. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek , an unide ...

s. Lake Qarun's status as crucial bird habitat has led to its designation as both an Egyptian protectorate and a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Lake qarun protected area by Hatem Moushir 1

The increasing

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

and

turbidity Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wa ...

of Lake Qarun has been implicated in the

extirpation Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with extinction, global extinctions. Local extinctions ...

of most Nilotic fish species originally present in the lake, such as

Nile perch The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi, Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is wides ...

and

Nile tilapia The Nile tilapia (''Oreochromis niloticus'') is a species of tilapia, a cichlid occurring naturally in parts of Africa (such as its namesake Nile River) and the Levant, though numerous introduced populations exist outside its natural range. T ...

; 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 The big-scale sand smelt (''Atherina boyeri'') is a species of fish in the family Atherinidae. It is a euryhaline amphidromous fish, up to 20 cm in length. Description It is a small pelagic fish species which occurs near the surface in the ...

, Egyptian sole, European seabass and

gilt-head bream The gilt-head bream (''Sparus aurata''), also known as the gilthead, dourade, gilt-head seabream or silver seabream, is a species of marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Sparidae, the seabreams or porg ...

, as well as multiple species of both mullet and

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

. Introduced mullets and sole, along with the native tilapia, remain the largest commercial fisheries in Lake Qarun, but factors such as continued evaporation of the lake, increased pollution from agricultural runoff and invasive cymothoid isopods have caused fish catches to drop off sharply over the past decade.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* * {{authority control Faiyum Governorate Moeris Moeris National parks of Egypt Geography of ancient Egypt Ramsar sites in Egypt