LookLex / Egypt / Fayoum Oasis

CONTENT

	INDEX

	INTRODUCTION

more on FAYOUM

	Intro

	Medinet Madi

	Qasr Qarun and Dionysias

	Karanis

	Lake Qarun

	Wadi Rayan

	Fayoum City

	Water wheels

	Qasr el-Sagha

	Umm el-Baragat, or Tebtunis

	Dimai

	Monastery of Archangel Gabriel

	Practicalities

BASICS
	Getting there

	Visas & passports

	Eating & sleeping

	Getting around

	Climate

	Health

	Safety

	Costs & currencies

	Shopping

	Don't forget to bring...

	Short facts

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FAYOUM OASIS:
Egypt in miniature

Wall decoration of the crocodile-god Sobek from the main temple at Medinet Madi.

Fayoum Oasis is Egypt's largest oasis, populated by more than 2 million. It is not a pure oasis like the other ones of Egypt, as most of its water comes from the Nile.

But it is a depression, and it has its own artesian wells, allowing water to reach the surface from underground reservoirs.

The extent of it is quite grand, and the green gardens seem to go on and on. Its villages are simple and far too often filthy, making a stark contrast to the gardens and the splended past.

Fayoum's history goes back in time as far as Egypt's. Its earliest recorded name, in the time of the pyramid builders, was To-She. With the construction of irrigation canals in the 19th century BCE, the oasis became the most fertile region in Egypt. The 4th century BCE king Ptolemy 2 Philadelphus named it after his sister/wife Arsinoe.

With the introduction of Roman control a few centuries later, a new taxation system ruined local farmers and resulted in a decline of the oasis that would last for almost 1600 years, before Mohammed Ali introduced new programmes, promoting agriculture.

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