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MOERIS, LAKE OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 643 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MOERIS, See also:LAKE OF , the lake which formerly filled the deep depression of the See also:Fayum to the See also:Nile level, now shrunken and sunk more than 200 ft. to the shallow Birket el Kerun. In remote prehistoric times the Fayum depression was probably dry, but with the See also:gradual rise of the See also:river See also:bed the high Nile reached a level at which it could enter through the natural or artificial channel now known as the See also:Bahr Yusuf. The See also:borders of the lake were occupied by a See also:neolithic See also:people, and the See also:town of Crocodilopolis See also:grew up very See also:early on the eastern slope See also:south of the channel, where the higher ground formed a See also:ridge in the lake. The rise continuing (at the See also:rate of about 4 in. to the See also:century) the See also:waters threatened to See also:flood the town; consequently under the Xllth See also:Dynasty See also:great embankments were made to See also:save the settled See also:land from encroachment. The See also:line of the See also:embankment is still trace-able in places and marked by monuments of the Xllth Dynasty See also:kings, an See also:obelisk of Senwosri I. at Ebgig, and colossi of Amenemhe III. at Biahmu. The latter ornamented the quayof the See also:port of Crocodilopolis, and projected into the lake on high bases. As the Nile See also:fell the broad expanse of the lake lowered, and the See also:water pouring back through the channel was of value for summer See also:irrigation; the inflow and outflow were regulated by sluices, and the See also:capture of See also:fish here and in the lake was enormous. The channel which was of such importance was called the " Great Channel," Mewer, in See also:Greek Moeris. The native name of the lake was Shei, " the lake," later Pi6m, " the See also:sea " (whence Fayum); Teshei, " the land of the lake," was the early name of the region. At its See also:capital Crocodilopolis and elsewhere the See also:crocodile See also:god Sobk (Suchus) was worshipped. Senwosri II. of the Xllth Dynasty built his See also:pyramid at Illahun at the See also:outer end of the channel, Amenemhe III. built his near the inner end at Hawara, and the vast See also:labyrinth attached to it was probably his funerary See also:temple. This See also:king was afterwards worshipped in more than one locality about the lake under the name Marres (his praenomen Nemare) or Peremarres, i.e.

See also:

Pharaoh Marres. The mud poured in at high Nile made See also:rich deposits on the eastern slope; in the reign of Philadelphus large reclamations of land were made, veterans from the Syrian See also:War were settled in the " Lake " (Aiµvij), and the latter quickly became a populous and very fertile See also:province. See also:Strabo's See also:account of the Lake of Moeris must be copied from earlier writers, for in his See also:day the outflow had been stopped probably for two centuries, and the old bed of the lake was dotted with flourishing villages to a great See also:depth below the level of the Nile. Large See also:numbers of papyri of the Ptolemaic and See also:Roman periods have been found in and about the Fayum, which continued to flourish through the first two centuries of the Roman See also:rule. See W. M. F. See also:Petrie, Hawara Biahmu and See also:Arsinoe (See also:London, 1889) ; R. H. See also:Brown, The Fayiiim and Lake Moeris (London, 1892); B. P. Grenfell, A.

S. See also:

Hunt and D. G. See also:Hogarth, Fayum Towns and their Papyri (London, 1900) ; H. J. C. Beadnell, The See also:Topography and See also:Geology of the Fayum Province of See also:Egypt (See also:Cairo, 1905). (F. L1,.

End of Article: MOERIS, LAKE OF

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