Mareotis

Mareotis, or MAREIA, LAKE, the modern El Mariūt, a salt lake or marsh in the north of Egypt, extends southward from Alexandria, and is separated from the Mediterranean, on its northwest side, by a narrow isthmus of sand. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was a navigable lake; in 1798 it was found by the French to be a dry sandy plain; but in 1801 the English army cut the dikes of the canal that separated the Lake of Aboukir from Mareotis, to cut off the water-supply of the French, and Mareotis became once more a marsh. The like happened again in 1803, in 1807, and in 1882, when the sea was let in by a cutting 15 feet wide and half a mile long; but 'Mariut' has been partly drained again.