Lake Menzaleh

• Description
  Illustration "Lake Menzaleh". Abbildung des Mensalesees aus "The Illustrated London News" vom 13. März 1869 in einem Artikel zu "The Isthmus of Suez maritime canal". (S. 264)
  
  Ausschnitte aus dem Artikel:
  “On leaving Port Said the canal enters Lake Menzaleh, through which the channel runs for twenty-nine miles. The waters of this lake are shallow and the bottom composed of mud. At times the sea washes over the strip of sand to the north of the lake. It was found, however, that a firm dry soil was below the mud. Leaving Lake Menzaleh at Kantara, a station on the desert route between Egypt and Syria, the course of the canal for two miles lies through low sandhills. (…)
  The Sketches of Lake Menzaleh and the Pelusian Plain will convey an idea of the character of the country towards the Mediterranean through which the canal was to be made. Towards Port Said the canal has the lake on both sides, but it is so near the eastern end of the lake that we may say the Plain forms its western bank. Lake Menzaleh extends from the Damietta branch of the Nile to the Pelusian Plain. (…)
  The lake is full of fish, and consequently the people are all fishermen. There is almost no other occupation. Fish is salted and sent by boat, by camels and asses, to all parts of Egypt. The birds are also of the Ichthyophagi. There is an Isle of Pelicans. Herons and wading birds of all kinds are plentiful, and the fish are so abundant that there is ample food for all. In looking across this vast lake one sees, as far as the horizon, long strips of land ; islands with a short herbage on them; here and there an Arab village of reed huts ; and among these islands may be seen boats, with their crews busy at work in the only employment of the place. When the Nile is full, the lake rises and all the islands are covered, and even the Pelusian Plain; and the level is higher than that of the Mediterranean, and consequently above the canal. As the Menzaleh lake is on the west, the plain of Pelusus is on the east side of the Suez Canal. This plain is, in fact, the portion of the lake which has been filled up and become solid ground — a process which has been evidently going on for many a day. As islands on the lake are the features on the one side, small lakes on the plain form the distinctive character of the other. The highway from Palestine, Syria, and Persia came by this plain; a road still exists, and a ferry had to be established at Kantara, which word expresses ferry, and tells of the former existence of the means of crossing the waters of the lake at this place.” (S. 265)
• Editor
  Illustrated London News
• Creation
  London, 13/03/1869
• Description
  Breite: 26 cm ; Höhe: 18.5 cm
• Object title
  Zeitungsausschnitt ; Illustration
• Part of
  KS-31-02: Rezeptionsobjekte
• Inventory number
  BPA-018735
• Topics
  Suezkanal / Mensalesee / Vogel / Zeitungsartikel
• URL
  Internet Archive The Illustrated London News March 13, 1869