Egypt - Oasis of Fayoum, hydraulic remains and ancient cultural landscapes

Physically, the Oasis corresponds to a depression dug in the limestone rock with a surface area of about 17.000 km², whose bottom lies 45 m below sea level and the surrounding relief rises 350 metres above sea level. To the north, a lake called Lake Qaroun, spreads over 40 km in length and is 4 km wide at some points, thus covering about 200 km². That is all that is left of the "inland sea" which, during the upper Pharaonic period, still inundated most of the Fayoum lands so that the latter was known as the "Country of the Lake". Herodotus, who visited it in 460 BC, spoke of "Lake Moeris" which seems to correspond to a smaller lake, perhaps not as shrunk as the one today, but certainly not the "inland sea" of remote times.