Faiyum Oasis

{{Short description|Desert basin west of the Nile and south of Cairo, Egypt}} [[File:Egypt-region-map-cities-2.gif|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Site of Faiyum Oasis (directly southwest of Cairo, listed as Al-Fayyum) on a map of Egypt]] [[File:Fayyum txu-oclc-6949452-nh36-9.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Map showing Faiyum Oasis]] The '''Faiyum Oasis''' ({{langx|ar|واحة الفيوم}} ''Wāḥat al-Fayyum'') is a [[depression (geology)|depression]] or basin in the desert immediately west of the [[Nile]], 62 miles south of [[Cairo]], 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, the [[Bahr Yussef]], as it drains into a desert hollow to the west of the [[Nile Valley]]. The Bahr Yussef veers west through a narrow neck of land north of [[Ihnasya]], between the archaeological sites of [[El Lahun]] and [[Gurob]] near [[Hawara]]; it then branches out, providing agricultural land in the Faiyum basin, draining into the large saltwater [[Lake Moeris]] (Birket Qarun).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/afterpharaohs2010/13390.html|title=Lake Moeris|website=www.brown.edu|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref> In prehistory it was a freshwater lake, but is today a saltwater lake.<ref name=":0" /> It is a source of [[tilapia]] and other fish for the local area.

Differing from typical [[oases]], whose fertility depends on water obtained from springs, the cultivated land in the Faiyum is formed of Nile mud brought by the [[Bahr Yussef]] canal, 24 km (15 miles) in length.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Fayum|volume=10|page=219}}</ref> Between the beginning of the Bahr Yussef at [[El Lahun]] to its end at the city of [[Faiyum]], several canals branch off to irrigate the Faiyum Governorate. The drainage water flows into [[Lake Moeris]].

== History == [[File:Moeris.gif|thumb|upright=1.3|Survey of the Moeris Basin from the late 19th century]] When the [[Mediterranean Sea]] was a hot, dry hollow near the end of the [[Messinian salinity crisis|Messinian Salinity Crisis]] in the late [[Miocene]], Faiyum was also a dry hollow, and the [[Nile]] flowed past it at the bottom of a [[canyon]], which was {{convert|8000|ft|m}} deep or more where [[Cairo]] is today.<ref name="Warren2006">{{cite book|last=Warren|first=John|title=Evaporites: Sediments, Resources and Hydrocarbons|url=https://archive.org/details/evaporitessedime0000warr|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|isbn=3-540-26011-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/evaporitessedime0000warr/page/352 352]}}</ref><ref name="Mahmoudi2008">{{cite journal|last1=El Mahmoudi|first1= A.|last2= Gabr|first2= A.|title= Geophysical surveys to investigate the relation between the Quaternary Nile channels and the Messinian Nile canyon at East Nile Delta, Egypt|journal= Arabian Journal of Geosciences|volume= 2|issue= 1|year= 2008|pages= 53–67|issn= 1866-7511|doi= 10.1007/s12517-008-0018-9|s2cid= 128432827}}</ref> After the [[Mediterranean]] reflooded at the end of the [[Miocene]], the Nile canyon became an [[Inlet|arm of the sea]] reaching inland farther than [[Aswan]]. Over geological time, that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile Valley.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

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 about [[3000 BC]], around the time of [[Menes]] (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 (now [[Faiyum]]) grew up on the south side where the higher ground created a ridge.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

In 2300 BC, the waterway connecting the Nile River to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal now known as the [[Bahr Yussef]]. This canal, which fed into the lake, was meant to serve three purposes: controlling the flooding of the Nile, regulating the water level of the Nile during dry seasons, and serving the surrounding area with irrigation. There is evidence that the [[pharaoh]]s of the [[Twelfth 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Egypt |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05329b.htm |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile dwindling in size from 230 BC.

Faiyum was known to the [[ancient Egyptians]] as the twenty-first [[Nome (Egypt)|nome]] of [[Upper Egypt]], '''Atef-Pehu''' ("Northern Sycamore"). Its capital was Sh-d-y-t (usually written "Shedyt"),<ref>[[Hieroglyph]]ic writing did not have [[vowel]]s, so spellings vary as to use of vowels for names in Egyptian culture. Hieroglyphic pronunciation was indicated by [[determinative]]s which showed what sort of meaning the word had.</ref> known to the Greeks as ''Crocodilopolis'', and renamed by [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] as Arsinoe.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} [[File:Faiyum Oasis by Zorbey Tunçer.jpg|thumb|left|Faiyum Oasis (2008)|upright=1.3]] This region has the earliest evidence for farming in Egypt, and was a center of royal pyramid and tomb-building in the Twelfth Dynasty of the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]], and again during the rule of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]. Faiyum became one of the breadbaskets of the [[Roman Empire|Roman world]]. For the first three centuries AD, the people of Faiyum and elsewhere in [[Roman Egypt]] not only [[Embalming|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 for [[cremation]]. Preserved by the dry desert environment, these [[Fayum 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 pigmented [[wax]] technique called [[encaustic painting]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encaustic.ca/html/history.html |title=History of Encaustic Art |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121223091730/http://www.encaustic.ca/html/history.html |archivedate=2012-12-23 }}</ref>[[File:Jean-Léon Gérôme, View of Medinet El-Fayoum, c. 1868-1870, NGA 162261.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Léon Gérôme]], ''View of Medinet El-Fayoum'', c. 1868–1870|357x357px]] In the late [[1st millennium]], the arable area shrank. Settlements around the edge of the basin were abandoned. These sites include some of the best-preserved from the late [[Roman Empire]], notably [[Karanis]], and from the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] and early [[Arab]] 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 of [[papyrus]] fragments containing literature and documents in [[Latin]], 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fayum Project |url=https://www.trismegistos.org/fayum/ |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=www.trismegistos.org}}</ref>

According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], in 1910 over 1,000 km2 (400 mile2) of the Faiyum Oasis was cultivated, the chief crops being [[cereal]]s and [[cotton]]. The completion of the [[Aswan 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 its [[ficus|fig]]s, [[grape]]s, and [[olive]]s. [[Rose]] trees were numerous, and most of the [[rose oil|attar of roses]] (rose oil) of Egypt was manufactured in the province. Faiyum also raised its own variety of [[sheep]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Archaeology== In the vicinity of the lake are many ruins of ancient villages and cities. The mounds north of the city of [[Faiyum]] mark the site of Crocodilopolis/Arsinoe. Archaeological remains across the region extend from the prehistoric period to modern times, e.g. the [[Monastery of the Archangel Gabriel at Naqlun]].

== The cult of Sobek == In antiquity, the Faiyum was a center of the cult of the crocodile god [[Sobek]]. In many settlements, temples were dedicated to local manifestations of the god and associated divinities.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kockelmann|first=Holger|title=Der Herr der Seen, Sümpfe und Flußläufe. Untersuchungen zum Gott Sobek und den ägyptischen Krokodilgötter-Kulten von den Anfängen bis zur Römerzeit|publisher=Harrassowitz|year=2017|isbn=978-3-447-10810-2|location=Wiesbaden|pages=19–63; 375–421}}</ref> 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, [[Medinet Madi|Narmouthis]], [[Soknopaiou Nesos]], [[Tebtunis]], and [[Theadelphia]], since many written sources ([[Papyrus|papyri]], [[Ostracon|ostraka]], [[Epigraphy|inscriptions]]) on the daily life of the priests are available there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sippel |first=Benjamin |title=Gottesdiener und Kamelzüchter: Das Alltags – und Sozialleben der Sobek-Priester im kaiserzeitlichen Fayum. |publisher=Harrassowitz |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-447-11485-1 |location=Wiesbaden |language=German}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Choat|first=Malcolm|title=Christianity|work=The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-19-957145-1|editor-last=Riggs|editor-first=Christina|location=Oxford, New York|pages=474–489}}</ref>

[[File:Fayum.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|Shore of [[Birket Qarun]], Faiyum]] ==Birket Qarun lake== {{main|Lake Moeris}} Birket Qarun ([[Arabic]] for ''Lake of [[Korah|Qarun]]'') is located in the Faiyum Oasis and has an abundant population of [[fish]], notably [[Nile tilapia|bulti]], of which considerable quantities are sent to [[Cairo]].<ref name="EB1911"/> In ancient times, this lake was significantly larger, and the ancient Greeks and Romans knew it as Lake Moeris.

==Cities and towns== The largest city is [[Faiyum]], which is also the capital of the [[Faiyum Governorate]]. Other towns include [[Sinnuris]] and [[Tamiya, Egypt|Tamiya]] to the north of Faiyum, and Sanhur and Ibsheway on the road leading towards the lake. Moreover, [[Itsa]] lies to the south west of Faiyum, while the district of Youssef Al-Seddik is also part of the governorate, situated near the [[Tunis, Faiyum Governorate|Tunis Village]].

==In popular culture== The oasis is the setting for about a quarter of [[Paolo Coelho]]'s ''[[The Alchemist (novel)|The Alchemist]]'', one of the world's top 20 [[List of best-selling books|best-selling books]], and is featured in the [[Young adult literature|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|Assassin's Creed: Origins]] game.

==See also== *[[Bahr Yussef]] canal *[[Faiyum]] *[[Fayum (fossil deposit)]] *[[Faiyum Governorate]] *[[Farafra]] *[[Fayum mummy portraits]] *[[Lake Moeris]] *[[Kerkeosiris]], ancient village in Faiyum *[[Monastery of the Archangel Gabriel at Naqlun]] *[[Pedestals of Biahmu]] *[[Phiomia]] (an extinct relative of the elephant, named after Faiyum) *[[Roman Egypt]]

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080113220455/http://www.bh.com/companions/0340740671/exercises/prob2.htm The Hydraulics of Open Channel Flow: An Introduction]

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[[Category:Faiyum Governorate]] [[Category:Geography of ancient Egypt]] [[Category:Oases of Egypt]]