TheFaiyum Oasis (Arabic:واحة الفيومWāḥat al-Fayyum) is adepression or basin in the desert immediately west of theNile river, 62 miles south ofCairo, Egypt. The extent of the basin area is estimated at between 1,270 km2 (490 mi2) and 1,700 km2 (656 mi2). The basin floor comprises fields watered by a channel of the Nile, theBahr Yussef, as it drains into a desert hollow to the west of theNile Valley. The Bahr Yussef veers west through a narrow neck of land north ofIhnasya, between the archaeological sites ofEl Lahun andGurob nearHawara; it then branches out, providing agricultural land in the Faiyum basin, draining into the large saltwaterLake Moeris (Birket Qarun).[1] In prehistory it was a freshwater lake, but is today a saltwater lake.[1] It is a source fortilapia and other fish for the local area.
Differing from typicaloases, whose fertility depends on water obtained from springs, the cultivated land in the Faiyum is formed of Nile mud brought by theBahr Yussef canal, 24 km (15 miles) in length.[2] Between the beginning of Bahr Yussef atEl Lahun to its end at the city ofFaiyum, several canals branch off to irrigate the Faiyum Governorate. The drainage water flows intoLake Moeris.
When theMediterranean Sea was a hot, dry hollow near the end of theMessinian Salinity Crisis in the lateMiocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and theNile flowed past it at the bottom of acanyon, which was 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep or more whereCairo is today.[3][4] After theMediterranean reflooded at the end of theMiocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland further thanAswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile Valley.[citation needed]
Eventually, the Nile valley bed silted up high enough to let the Nile periodically overflow into the Faiyum Hollow, forming a lake. The lake is first recorded from about3000 BC, around the time ofMenes (Narmer). However, for the most part, it would only be filled with high flood waters.Neolithic settlements bordered the lake, and the town of Crocodilopolis (nowFaiyum) grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.[citation needed]
In 2300 BC, the waterway from the Nile River to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal now known as theBahr Yussef. This canal fed into the lake. This was meant to serve three purposes: control the flooding of the Nile, regulate the water level of the Nile during dry seasons, and serve the surrounding area with irrigation. There is evidence thepharaohs of theTwelfth Dynasty of Egypt used the natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry periods. The immense waterworks undertaken by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake into a vast water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial excavation, as classic geographers and travellers reported.[5] The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile dwindling in size from 230 BC.
Faiyum was known to theancient Egyptians as the twenty-firstnome ofUpper Egypt,Atef-Pehu ("Northern Sycamore"). Its capital was Sh-d-y-t (usually written "Shedyt"),[6] called by the GreeksCrocodilopolis, and refounded byPtolemy II Philadelphus as Arsinoe.[citation needed]
This region has the earliest evidence for farming in Egypt, and was a center of royal pyramid and tomb-building in the Twelfth Dynasty during theMiddle Kingdom, and again during the rule of thePtolemaic Kingdom. Faiyum became one of the breadbaskets of theRoman world.
For the first three centuries AD, the people of Faiyum and elsewhere inRoman Egypt not only embalmed their dead but also placed a portrait of the deceased over the face of the mummy wrappings, shroud or case. The Egyptians continued their practice of burying their dead, despite the Roman preference forcremation. Preserved by the dry desert environment, theseFayum mummy portraits make up the richest body of portraiture to have survived from antiquity. They provide a window into a society of peoples of mixed origins—Egyptians,Greeks, Romans,Syrians,Libyans and others—that flourished 2000 years ago in the Faiyum. The Faiyum portraits were painted on wood in a pigmentedwax technique calledencaustic painting.[7]
In the late1st millennium, the arable area shrank. Settlements around the edge of the basin were abandoned. These sites include some of the best-preserved from the lateRoman Empire, notablyKaranis, and from theByzantine and earlyArab Periods, though recent redevelopment has greatly reduced the archaeological features. In addition to the mummy portraits, the villages of the Faiyum have also proven to be a source ofpapyrus fragments containing literature and documents inLatin, Greek, and Egyptian scripts.
"Colonial-type" village names (villages named after towns elsewhere in Egypt and places outside Egypt) show that much land was brought into cultivation in the Faiyum in the Greek and Roman periods.[8]
According to theEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, in 1910 over 1,000 km2 (400 mile2) of the Faiyum Oasis was cultivated, the chief crops beingcereals andcotton. The completion of theAswan Low Dam ensured a supply of water, which enabled 20,000 acres (80 km2) of land, previously unirrigated and untaxed, to be brought under cultivation in the years 1903–1905. Three crops were obtained in twenty months. The province was noted for itsfigs,grapes, andolives.Rose trees were numerous, and most of theattar of roses (rose oil) of Egypt was manufactured in the province. Faiyum also raised its own variety ofsheep.[2]
In the vicinity of the lake are many ruins of ancient villages and cities. Mounds north of the city ofFaiyum mark the site of Crocodilopolis/Arsinoe. Archaeological remains across the region extend from the prehistoric period to modern times, e.g. theMonastery of the Archangel Gabriel at Naqlun.
In antiquity, the Fajyum was a center of the cult of the crocodile godSobek. In many settlements, temples were dedicated to local manifestations of the god and associated divinities.[9] The priests of Sobek were key players in social and economic life; for example by organizing religious festivals or by purchasing goods from local producers. The development of temples dedicated to the Sobek cult can be studied particularly well in Bakchias,Narmouthis,Soknopaiou Nesos,Tebtunis, and Theadelphia, since many written sources (papyri,ostraka,inscriptions) on the daily life of the priests are available there.[10]
Egyptian temples have been operating at the edges of the Fayyum at least until the early third century and in some cases in the fourth century. The institutionalized Sobek cults existed alongside early Christian communities, which settled in the region from the third century onwards and built their first churches in the Fayyum settlements by the fourth century.[11]
Birket Qarun (Arabic forLake ofQarun), is located in the Faiyum Oasis and has an abundant population offish, notablybulti, of which considerable quantities are sent to Cairo.[2] In ancient times this lake was much larger, and the ancient Greeks and Romans called itLake Moeris.
The largest city isFaiyum, which is also the capital of the Faiyum Governorate. Other towns include Sinnuris andTamiya to the north ofFaiyum, and Sanhur and Ibsheway on the road to the lake.
The oasis is the setting for about a quarter ofPaolo Coelho'sThe Alchemist, one of the top 20best-selling books in the world, and is featured in the YA adventure novel The Lost Temple of the Crocodile Queen by E.M. Quest.It also appears as one of the main regions in the Assassin's Creed: Origins game.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fayum".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 219.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)29°27′13″N30°34′51″E / 29.45361°N 30.58083°E /29.45361; 30.58083
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