Lake Mariout

The name of Lake Mariout derives from the Hellenized name of Mareotis (Ancient Greek: Μαρεῶτις) or Marea, by which it was known in the Ptolemaic Period.^[1]

In antiquity, the lake was much larger than it is now, extending further to the south and west and occupying around 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi). It had no mouth connecting it to the Mediterranean, being fed with Nile water via a number of canals. By the twelfth century the lake had dwindled to a collection of salt lakes and salt flats^[3] and it had dried up by the Late Middle Ages.^[4]

Until the 18th century the lake was fresh water, though much of it would dry up annually during the period shortly before the Nile flooded it again. A storm in 1770 breached the sea wall at Abu Qir, creating a seawater lake known as Lake Abu Qir. The salt waters were kept separate from Lake Mariout by the canal that allowed fresh water to travel from the Nile to Alexandria. As part of the Siege of Alexandria, on 13 March 1801, the British cut the canal, allowing a great rush of sea water from Lake Abu Qir into Lake Mariout. Lake Abu Qir ceased to exist, and Lake Mariout became brackish instead of fresh.^[5]

The salt-water flood also destroyed 150 villages^[4] while refilling Lake Mariout so that it suddenly regained its ancient area and became too shallow for navigation. Alexandria's access to the Nile was lost, necessitating the opening of the Mahmoudiyah Canal from Alexandria to the Nile in 1820.^[6]

Lake Mariout is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the narrow isthmus on which the city of Alexandria was built. The lake shore is home to fisheries and saltworks. As far back as the early 1900s, it was documented that salt was being refined from the western part of the lake.^[7]

According to some records, a homonymous nome was located on the shores of this lake.^[8]

The seaside town of Abusir, known in the Graeco-Roman period as Taposiris Magna, lies on the shore of Lake Mariout. Ruins of an ancient temple and an ancient replica of the Lighthouse of Alexandria are to be seen there. As of 2009, it was also suspected to be the burial place of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.^[9][10][11]

In 2015 a stele, resembling the Rosetta Stone and dating back some 2200 years, was discovered in the Taposiris Magna Temple site at Lake Mariout. Measuring 41 by 25.6 by 7 inches (104 by 65 by 18 cm), its message commemorates two Ptolemaic pharaohs and Queen Consort Cleopatra I Syra. There are ancient tombs located on the shores of the lake.^{[citation needed]}

The fish species Nile perch lives in the lake although its principal habitat is fresh water, and the lake contains some salt. In 1939, a small lake, called the Nozha Hydrodrome was "isolated from Lake Mariout" and this allowed for the Nile perch to flourish there.^[2]

• W. B. Yeats refers to the lake as the Mareotic Lake in his poem "Under Ben Bulben".
• Lawrence Durrell writes about the lake using its ancient name Lake Mareotis in his tetralogy of novels The Alexandria Quartet, where it is the setting for a duck shoot.^[14]
• Jasper Maskelyne claimed in Magic: Top Secret (1949) to be involved in the construction of a decoy site next to the lake to draw Axis bombers away from attacking Alexandria Harbour during World War Two.

• Abu Qir Bay
• List of Catholic dioceses in Egypt