Articles | Volume 70, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-70-39-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-70-39-2021
Research article
 | 
28 Jan 2021
Research article |  | 28 Jan 2021

Western Mareotis lake(s) during the Late Holocene (4th century BCE–8th century CE): diachronic evolution in the western margin of the Nile Delta and evidence for the digging of a canal complex during the early Roman period

Maël Crépy and Marie-Françoise Boussac

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Cited articles

AMS: El Hammam 88/42, available at: http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/egypt/txu-pclmaps-oclc-6559596-el-hammam.jpg (last access: 22 January 2021), 1942. 
AMS: Burg El Arab, Serie P-502, available at: http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/north_africa/txu-oclc-6949452-nh35-8.jpg (last access: 22 January 2021), NH35-8, 1958. 
Arrowsmith, A.: Map of Lower Egypt, available at: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530669569/ (last access: 22 January 2021), 1807. 
Awad, I.: A Study of the Evolution of the Maryut Lake through Maps, in: Lake Mareotis Conference: Reconstructing the past, Universities of Southampton and Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt, 2008, edited by: Blue, L. and Khalil, E., Archaeopress, Oxford, UK, 11–33, 2010. 
Bernand, A.: Le Delta égyptien d'après les textes grecs. 1 – les confins libyques, IFAO, Le Caire, 1970 (in French). 
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Based on a new method, this paper proves the presence of several lakes during Greco-Roman antiquity in the Mariut basin and the digging of a canal network (up to 12 km long) in the Roman period to link them to Lake Mareotis. This challenges a 2-century-long scientific tradition according to which Lake Mareotis naturally linked Taposiris Magna to Alexandria during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is thus a starting point for new analyses of regional archaeology and geoarchaeology.