The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Mœris

MŒRIS, me'ris, Egypt, an ancient artificial lake north of Medinet-el-Fayum, until recent years confounded with Birket-el-Keroon (q.v.) — lake of the horn — with which it was connected. According to Herodotus, Lake Mœris was 350 miles in circumference, and about 300 feet deep. He states it to have been entirely the product of human industry. Birket-el-Keroon, about 30 or 40 miles long and six broad, is a natural basin. The works, therefore, which Herodotus attributes to King Mœris (Amenemhat III) are the Bahr Jusuf (Canal of Joseph), which connected Mœris with the Nile, and the canal connecting with the Birket-el-Keroon. The fisheries of the lake were very productive. The revenue derived from them went to the Egyptian queens. The two colossal statues described by Herodotus were discovered at the end of the 19th century, at Biahmu, the site of Crocodilopolis, an ancient neolithic town on the lake near the Bahr Iusuf entrance.