Couldn't this be among the several references in Ada to the ancient near east?
 
Dear Carolyn,
 
It certainly is. And it somehow reminds me of one of Mandelstam's "morgulets" (jokular little poems about "old Morgulis"):
 
Morgulis - on iz Narkomprosa.
On ne turist i ne estestvennik,
K istokam Tigra i Efrosa
On znamenityi puteshestvennik.
 
(Morgulis, he is from the State Department of Education.
He is neither a tourist, nor a nature scientist,
He is the famous traveller
To the sources of Tigris and Efros.)
 
Mandelstam is also the author of "Armenia" (1930), a dozen of poems about this land visited by Mandelstam. 
 
What do you mean by "that odd shaped lake"? The rectangular Lake Kitezh near Luga jointly owned by Demon Veen and his cousin Daniel (1.1), or similarly shaped Tarn in Ardis (1.5)? By the way, ARDIS = PARADISE - APE.
 
best,
Alexey

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