Moeris
(
Μοῖρις) or
Myris (
Μύρις). A supposed king of Egypt, who is said to have dug, about
B.C. 1350, the great lake known by his name. It covered over sixty square miles at the
entrance to the Fayûm; and was really constructed by Amenemhat III. of the Twelfth
Dynasty about B.C. 2300. It was employed for storing the water of the Nile for irrigation, and
is now properly to be identified with the natural lake Borket-el-Kurûn. Herodotus
says that the king erected two pyramids in the lake, one supporting a
statue of himself and the other a statue of his wife. Remains of these pyramids have been
discovered in modern times. The name
Moeris is the Egyptian
meri, “a lake,” and no such king as Moeris ever lived. See Herod.
ii. 13, 101, 149;
Diod. i. 52; Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. v. 9, 50;
xxxvii. 12,
76; and Linant
Bey, Mémoire sur le Lac Moeris
(1843).