Photo : Aya Gallab — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Fayoum · Lake Qarun
Lake Qarun
A salt lake below sea level, all that is left of the ancients' Lake Moeris.
The lake fills the floor of the Fayoum depression, below sea level, and is what remains of a far larger sheet of water the Greeks called Moeris. It has no outlet: what comes in evaporates, the salt stays, and the water grows saltier as farm drainage is fed into it. The south shore is a road, irrigated land, a few hotels and boats hauled up on the bank; the north shore rises in a bare desert escarpment. Fishermen still work nets from the boats and lines from the shore, and waterbirds winter on the lake.
The extra bit
Late in the day is the moment: the light comes from behind the water, the boats come in, and the heat eases. The temple at Qasr Qarun, at the western tip, fits into the same afternoon as the south shore.
Know before you go
The water is salty and the bottom silty, and the shore smells in places: this is not a place for a swim. You eat fish at roadside stalls rather than in restaurants — look at what is coming off the grill before you order. For a boat, settle the price and the length of the trip before you get in, and pay on return. The level and the shoreline shift from year to year, and some jetties no longer reach the water.
