Fayoum (Arabic: الفيوم El
Fayyūm, Coptic: ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ Phiom) is a
city in Middle Egypt. Located 100 kilometres southwest of Cairo, in
the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate.
Originally called Shedet in Ancient Egypt, the Greeks called it Crocodilopolis
or Krocodilopolis, the Romans Arsinoë. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due
to its strategic location.
OLD PICTURE OF FAYOUM CITY |
The modern name of the city comes
from Coptic ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ /Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ epʰiom / peiom (whence the proper name Ⲡⲁⲓⲟⲙ payom),
meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian pꜣ-ymꜥ of the
same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris; the extinct elephant
ancestor Phiomia was named after it.
Archaeological evidence has found
occupations around the Fayoum dating back to at least the Epipalaeolithic
period. The middle Holocene occupations of the area are most widely studied on
the North shore of Lake Qarun, where archeologists did a
number of excavations of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites, as well as a
general survey of the area. Recently a team from the UCLA/RUG/UOA known as the
“Fayoum Project” has further investigated the area.
BIRDS ON LAKE QARUN |
Under the Ptolemies, the city was
for a while called Ptolemais Euergetis. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC)
rechristened the city as Arsinoë after the name of his sister and wife Arsinoë
(316–270).
RAISING PIGONS IN FAYOUM |
Fayoum has several large bazaars,
mosques, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The canal called Bahr Yussef
runs through the city, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over
the river: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and
one of two arches, over which is built the Qaitbay mosque, that was a gift from
his wife to honour the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum.
LAKE KAROUN |
Lake Karoun / Qarun
Lake Moeris (Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις,
genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Fayoum Oasis, 80
km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake,
with an area estimated to vary between 1,270 km² (490 mi²) and 1,700 km² (656
mi²).
It persists today as a smaller
saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 43 m (140 ft) below sea
level, and covers about 202 square kilometers (78 sq mi).
It is a source for tilapia and
other fish from the local area. The lake is a magnet to migrating fowl from
Europe thus a heaven for hunters.
WATER WEEL |
When the Mediterranean Sea was a
hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late
Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of
a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now). After the Mediterranean refolded
at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching
inland further than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled
with silt and became the Nile valley.
Eventually, the Nile valley bed
silted up high enough to let the Nile in flood overflow into the Fayoum hollow
and make a lake in it. 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 floodwaters. The lake was bordered by Neolithic settlements, and the
town of Shedet grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.
FISHERMEN ON LAKE KARUN / QARUN |
In 2300 BC, the waterway from the
Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal, which is now
known as the Bahr Yussef, a project started by Amenemhat III, or perhaps
by his father Senusret III. This canal fed into the lake and 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 of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using 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 huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial
excavation, as reported by classic geographers and travelers. The lake was
eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking from 230
BC.
SKELETON OF A WALE |
Wadi El Hitan in Fayoum Oasis
Wadi El Hitan (Arabic: وادي الحيتان,
"Whale Valley") is a paleontological site in the Faiyum Governorate
of Egypt, some 150 km southwest of Cairo. It was designated a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in July 2005 for its hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest
forms of whale, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales). The site
reveals evidence for the explanation of one of the greatest mysteries of the
evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a
previous life as a land-based animal. No other place in the world yields the
number, concentration and quality of such fossils, as is their accessibility
and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. This is why the UNESCO
added it to the list of protected World Heritage sites .
The fossils found at the site may
not be the oldest but their great concentration in the area and the degree of
their preservation is to the extent that even some stomach contents are intact.
The presence of fossils of other early animals such as sharks, crocodiles,
sawfish, turtles and rays found at Wadi El-Hitan makes it possible to
reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the
time, adding to its justification to be cited as a Heritage site.
FOSSILS IN THE DESERT |
The first fossil skeletons of
whales were discovered in the winter of 1902-3. For the next 80 years they
attracted relatively little interest, largely due to the difficulty of reaching
the area. In the 1980s interest in the site resumed as four wheels drive
vehicles became more readily available. Continuing interest coincided with the
site being visited by fossil collectors, and many bones were removed, prompting
calls for the site to be conserved. The remains display the typical streamlined
body form of modern whales, yet retaining some of the primitive aspects of
skull and tooth structure. The largest skeleton found reached up to 21 m in
length, with well-developed five-fingered flippers on the forelimbs and the
unexpected presence of hind legs, feet, and toes, not known previously in any archaeoceti.
Their form was serpentine and they were carnivorous. A few of these skeletal
remains are exposed but most are shallowly buried in sediments, slowly
uncovered by erosion. Wadi El-Hitan provides evidences of millions of years of
coastal marine life.
Watch the amazing "Wales In the Desert" Documentary below
NOTE: In my previous post the reference to the documentary was somehow
difficult to notice and therefore was missed by most readers