Lake Manzala

The lake's name derives from . In Middle Ages it was also known as pi-Manjōili (), translated into Greek as Xenedokhou (), thus making the modern Arabic name a translation of a Coptic one, where phonetic resemblance is only coincidental. ==Geography==

Lake Manzala is long but quite shallow. Though Lake Manzala's unaltered depth is only , alterations to the depth were made during the construction of the Suez Canal to allow the Canal to extend lengthwise along the lake. Its bed is soft clay. Before construction of the Suez Canal, Lake Manzala was separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a strip of sand wide. Port Said was established adjacent to Lake Manzala during the nineteenth century to support canal construction and related travel. The lake's location directly south of the Port Said Airport restricts the city's capacity for growth. ==Suez Canal==

Lake Manzala is the northernmost of three natural lakes intersected by the Suez Canal, the other two being Lake Timsah and the Great Bitter Lake. Construction of the canal proceeded from north to south, reaching Manzala first. Due to the lake's shallowness, it was necessary to dig a banked channel for ships to pass. ==Ecology==

Lake Manzala served as a significant source of inexpensive fish for human consumption in Egypt, but pollution and lake drainage have reduced the lake's productivity. In 1985, the lakes fishery was an open area of and employed roughly 17,000 workers. ==Notes==