Lake Qarun itself is an immensely popular site for avid bird watchers and nature lovers with many species of bird life and green areas.Short of tankers gliding between the sandbanks of the Suez Canal, Egypt has no weirder juxtaposition of water and desert than Lake Qaroun (Birket Qaroun), where fishing boats bob against a backdrop of arid hills and the immensity of the Western Desert.Known to locals as “The Pond” (El-Birka), the lake’s name may derive from the horn (qorn) shaped peak on an island in the middle, but Fayoumis believe that it’s named after a character in the Koran, who was swallowed up by the earth as a punishment for being “exultant in his riches”. The lake is favoured as a bathing resort by the local people and the season runs all year round however swimming is not recommended from January to April due to the cooler climate.