CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 553 
of the ancient Lake Moeris,^ which covered at least a large part of 
the floor of the FayLim depression. Lake Moeris was first described 
about 450 b.c. by Herodotus, who believed it to be an artificial basin 
constructed by one of the Pharaohs of the Xllth dynasty for the 
regulation of the water-supply of Lower Egypt. Its existence and 
position have been much discussed in modern times, but it is now 
believed that the Fayum depression is a natural one, and King 
Amenemhat III., of the Xllth dynasty, is accredited with the forma- 
tion of the lake about 2500 e.g., through the widening and deepening 
of the small canal already existing between the Nile and the depression, 
and placing it under artificial control. According to Major R. 
Hanbury Brown, Inspector-General of Irrigation for Upper Egypt, 
Lake Moeris covered the whole of the Fayum up to the contour-line 
of 22"50 metres (74 feet) above mean sea-level," and the greatest depth 
when the lake was at its full height would be about 70 metres 
(230 feet). At some time or other, either by a gradual or sudden 
process, the lake ceased to perform its offices of regulator and reservoir, 
and having once reached that stage, there would be nothing to 
prevent measures being taken to exclude most of the water from the 
depression except what would be required for the irrigation of re- 
claimed areas, and evaporation gradually reduced the area of the lake 
until it reached the present dimensions of the modern Birket Qarun. 
Much discussion has taken place within recent years with regard to 
the project of restoring this great storage reservoir. To enlarge 
the Bahr Yusef and flood the Fayum involves the loss of many 
thousand acres of rich land ; hence Captain Whitehouse proposed 
to utilise another depression, the Wady Ryan, lying to the south and 
south-west.^ 
The Birket Qarun Jies approximately 140 feet below sea-level, and 
has an area of about 87 square miles, being 25 miles long and 5 or 
6 miles in maximum breadth ; the maximum depth is about 25 feet. 
The water of the present lake is sufficiently brackish to be quite 
unpalatable, though it is quite good enough for most culinary 
^ Apostolidis {Bull. Hoc. Khediviale de Geogr., ser. vii., 1908, pp. 109 et seq.) 
maintains that this is a mistake made originally by Herodotus, and contrary to 
the testimony of monuments, traditions, etc. He says Eegnant's analysis shows 
that the water is too salt to serve for agricultural purposes, and that there is no 
reason to suppose that in antiquity things were different. The princijml canal of 
the Fayum was made of such a depth that the waters of the Nile might freely 
enter the province even in low flood, and subsequently a lake was made at tlie 
entrance to the Faytim to act as a reservoir for the superfluous waters at periods 
of high flood, for purposes of agriculture. 
2 The Fayitm and Lake Moeris, p. 78, London, 1892. 
2 See William Willcocks, The Assudri Reservoir and Lake Moerix, lecture 
delivered before the Khedivial Geographical Society at Cairo, London, 1904. 
