Lake Qarun

Qarun is what is left of Lake Moeris, which in Pharaonic times filled much of the Faiyum depression and was managed with canals from the Nile as a flood reservoir, and which the Twelfth Dynasty kings built temples and pyramids around. The modern lake is far smaller, sits about forty-five metres below sea level, and has grown steadily saltier because it has an inflow of agricultural drainage and no outlet at all. That salinity has changed what lives in it. What has not changed is its importance to birds: it is a significant wintering and passage site on the Eastern Mediterranean flyway, with flamingoes, waders, herons and large numbers of ducks between autumn and spring. The northern shore is bare desert cliff, the southern one cultivated and dotted with hotels of varying vintage.

History

Lake Qarun is the hypersaline remnant of Lake Moeris, which in prehistory covered much of the Faiyum depression, fed intermittently by Nile floods through the Hawara channel; stone flakes along its old shores show people living there from the Middle Palaeolithic. The lake is recorded from about 3000 BC, and by the Old Kingdom the town of Shedet, the cult centre of the crocodile god Sobek, later Crocodilopolis and now Faiyum city, stood on its south-eastern shore. In the Middle Kingdom the kings of the 12th Dynasty reclaimed land around it, Senusret II beginning the work, and Amenemhat III had the Hawara channel dug out into the canal now called the Bahr Yussef, turning the Faiyum into a major farming region; the Greeks called him King Moeris, and the name of the lake comes from the Egyptian for "great canal". Drainage and reclamation in the early Ptolemaic period cut the lake off from the Nile, and it shrank to the lake of today (Wikipedia, Lake Moeris).

What's there

• Wintering waterbirds - flamingoes, waders and ducks from October onward.
• The desert cliff on the north shore - bare escarpment straight out of the water.
• A lake below sea level - the floor of the Faiyum depression.
• Fishing boats - a working salt-water fishery in the middle of the desert.

When to go

October to April is both the comfortable season and the bird season, with numbers highest from November to February. Early morning for light and for birds. Half a day along the shore, longer with a boat.

Things to know

The lake is heavily affected by agricultural drainage and rising salinity, and parts of the shore are polluted and littered. Some lakeside hotels are run-down. Birdwatching needs binoculars and patience; there are no hides. Boatmen negotiate hard and the boats are basic.

Nearby

Tunis village stands on the ridge above; Karanis and Qasr Qarun lie at the lake's ends.

Key facts