Faiyum Oasis

The Faiyum Oasis (Arabic: واحة الفيوم Wāḥat al-Fayyum) is a depression or basin in the desert immediately west of the Nile river, 62 miles south of Cairo, Egypt.

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.

[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 the Bahr Yussef.

There is evidence the pharaohs 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.

For the first three centuries AD, the people of Faiyum and elsewhere in Roman Egypt not only embalmed their dead but also placed a portrait of the deceased over the face of the mummy wrappings, shroud or case.

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.

These sites include some of the best-preserved from the late Roman Empire, notably Karanis, and from the 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.

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.

[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.