 | ||
Lake Bardawil (Arabic: بحيرة البردويل Buhayrat al Bardawil or سبخة البردويل Sabkhat al Bardawil) is a large, very saline lagoon in Egypt on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Lake Bardawil is about 30 kilometers (19 mi) long, and 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) wide (at its widest). It's considered to be one of the three major lakes of the Sinai Peninsula, along with the Great Bitter Lake and the Little Bitter Lake. It continues to decrease in size as sands move and is becoming more of a Playa or Sabkha than a lake. Between Port Said and Rafah are three main sabkhat which extend from west to east: Sabkhat El Malaha (Lake Fouad), Sabkhat Bardawil (Lake Bardawil) and Sabkhat El Sheikh Zawayed.
Map of Bardawil Lake, Shamal Sina, Egypt
It is shallow, reaching a depth of about 3 meters, and is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a narrow sandbar and often the waters of the sea find their way there, making it saline. It has International Ramsar Convention protected wetlands with a large population of Little Tern. 30% of the recorded species in the Mediterranean Coast of Sinai are in Lake Bardawil. Six threatened species of fauna exist at Lake Bardawil, including Iris mariae.
It has six habitats including "open water, wet salt marshes, saline sand flats and hummuck (nebkas), stabilized sand dunes, interdune depressions, and mobile sand dunes."
It may be what Herodotus described as the Serbonian Bog, between Damietta and Mount Casius.
Some students of the Hebrew Exodus out of Egypt think that this location is near the fourth station of the Exodus, called Pi-hahiroth, saying "it may have been just west of the Western tip of Lake Bardawil."