[5] Before construction of the Suez Canal, Lake Manzala was separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a strip of sand 200 to 300 yards (180 to 270 m) 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.

[1] The government of Egypt drained substantial portions of the lake in an effort to convert its rich Nile deposits to farmland.

The project was unprofitable: crops did not grow well in the salty soil and the value of resulting produce was less than the market value of the fish that the reclaimed land had formerly yielded.