Fayoum

The Fayoum (Al-Fayyum) is one of the governorships of the Egypt located in the center of the country.

Its capital is the city also called Médinet el-Fayoum (Medinat Al-Fayyum in Arabic, الفيو), with 130 kilometers in the south-west of the Cairo. Fayoum itself is a Oasis Désert of Libya, its Eastern border being approximately with 30 kilometers in the west of the Nile. Covering a surface of 1.270 km ², Fayoum is an area distinct from the Vallée of the Nile and other oases of desert: its fields are sprinkled by a channel coming from the the Nile, Bahr Youssef. Water runs out in a depression of the desert in the west of the valley of the Nile. the lake Fayoum, a fresh water big lake in antiquity, but currently, of more modest size and whose water is salted. Thanks to Bahr Youssef, Fayoum is an agricultural rich person area.

The surface of the lake is approximately 200 km ². Different from a typical oasis, on which the fertility depends on water obtained starting from the sources, the ground cultivated in Fayoum is consisted of the mud of the Nile carted by Bahr Youssef. Of this 24 kilometers length channel of Lahun, at the entry of space in the hills, in Medina, several channels connect up in addition to and by the latter the province is irrigated, the water of drainage running in Birket Qéroûn.

The south-west of Fayoum, and the province, is the depression of Gharak. Another depression, entirely sterile, Wadi Rayan, covering 725 km ², is at the west of Gharak. The whole area is under the sea level, and, except space mentioned, is encircled by the Libyan hills. The lowest part of the province, the end of the North-West, is occupied by the lake Birket Qéroûn whose level is to 43 m under the sea level.

Agricultural production

Fayoum is famous for its agricultural productions, in particular the Figue S, the Raisin and the Olive S.

The lake Birket Qéroûn abounds in Poisson S, in particular it carp of the Nile. Médinet el-Fayoum, the capital of the province, is a great agricultural center, with a population which increased: 26000 inhabitants in 1882 with more: 300000 inhabitants in 2000. North of monticules of the mark of city the site of Arsinoe, known of the Greek like Crocodilopolis, where in antiquity the Crocodile S alive in the Lake Moeris were adored. In addition to Médinet el-Fayoum there are several other cities in the province, among them Senuris and Tomia in the north of Médinet el-Fayoum and Senaru and Auuksa on the road with the lake.

There is also, particularly in the vicinity of the lake, much of ruins of villages and ancient cities. Fayoum is the site of the Lake Moeris of the ancient Egyptians, whose lake Birket Qéroûn is the remainder.

History

This area, obviously the oldest agricultural area in Egypt, was a center of royal activity during the Moyen Empire and of the ptolémaïque period. Fayoum was one of the principal attics with corn of the ancient world.

During the first three centuries of the Christian era, the inhabitants of Fayoum and besides in Roman Egypt not only embaumaient their deaths but also placed a portrait of late above the face of the Momie. Preserved by the dry environment of the desert, these Portraits of Fayoum composes the richest corpus of portraits which survived of Antiquity. They provide us a vision of a remarkable company of the people of mixed origins: the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Syrians, the Libyans and others which opened out 2.000 years ago in Fayoum.

Towards the end of the thousand-year-old first, the arable sector narrowed, and the establishment human around the edge of the basin were abandoned. These sites include part of the sites best preserved end of the Roman Empire, in particular of Karanis, and Byzance as well as beginning of the ic period Islam. At the 14th century, Az-Zâhir Sayf AD-DIN Barquq made redéfricher.

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