Lake · Egypt
Lake Qarun
Lake Qarun is a salty lake in the Faiyum Oasis of Egypt. Its surface lies about 43 metres below sea level, and it is what is left of a much bigger ancient lake, Lake Moeris.
Picture credit: Aya Gallab (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Khaledfawzy1 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Qarun?
Countries on its shores: Egypt.
Largest lake of: Egypt.
Middle of the lake: 29.47° N, 30.62° E
The story behind it
Thousands of years ago, Lake Moeris filled much of the Faiyum. It was a freshwater lake, and scientists think it covered between 1 270 and 1 700 km². Egyptian pharaohs such as Amenemhat III had canals dug to bring water from the Nile. One of them, the Bahr Yussef, still feeds Lake Qarun today. The Greek traveller Herodotus even wrote about two «pyramids» standing in the lake. Later, dams held back the Nile water, and the lake slowly shrank. Today it is much smaller and has become very salty. Most of the old Nile fish have disappeared, but fishermen still catch tilapia, mullet and sole. Nearly 88 kinds of water birds spend the winter or nest here. On the shore lies an old quarry road that is thought to be the oldest paved road in the world. Lake Qarun is the largest natural lake in Egypt that is not a lagoon linked to the sea.
Find it on the globe
Lake Qarun is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Qarun?
Lake Qarun covers about 200 km²; depending on the source, between 202 and 230 km². Long ago, as Lake Moeris, it was many times bigger.
Where does the water of Lake Qarun come from?
It comes from the Nile, through a canal called the Bahr Yussef. The canal was dug in the time of the pharaohs.
Is Lake Qarun the largest lake in Egypt?
It is the largest natural lake in Egypt that is not linked to the sea. Some lagoons on the Mediterranean coast are bigger, but they are connected to the sea.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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