Al Fayyum
Encyclopedia
Faiyum is a city in Middle Egypt
. Located 130 km (81 mi) southwest of Cairo
, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. The town occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis
. Founded in around 4000 B.C., it is the oldest city in Egypt
and one of the oldest cities in Africa .
for The City of Faiyum). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis
, although it is commonly used by Egyptians
today to refer to the city.
The modern name of the city comes from Coptic
/ efiom/peiom (whence the proper name payom), meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian
pA y-m of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris
.
s, 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 honor the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum. Mounds north of the city mark the site of Arsinoe
, known to the ancient Greeks
as Crocodilopolis
, where in ancient times the sacred crocodile
kept in Lake Moeris
was worshipped.
The center of the city is on the canal, with the four waterwheels, that are adopted by the governorate of Fayoum as its national symbol, their chariots and bazaars are easy to spot.
Faiyum is the source of some famous death mask
s or mummy
portraits painted during the Roman
occupation of the area. The Egyptians continued their practice of burying their dead, despite the Roman preference for cremation
. While under the control of the Roman Empire, Egyptian death masks were painted on wood in a pigmented wax
technique called encaustic
—the Faiyum mummy portraits represent this technique. While commonly believed to represent Greek settlers in Egypt, the Faiyum portraits instead reflect the complex synthesis of the predominant Egyptian culture and that of the elite Greek minority in the city.
Undisputed remains of early anthropoids date from the late Eocene and early Oligocene, about 34 million years ago, in the Fayyum area, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. One of the earliest fossil primates at Fayum is Catopithecus, dating to around 35 million years ago.
Middle Egypt
Middle Egypt is the section of land between Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, though Middle Egypt was technically a subdivision of Upper Egypt. It was not until the...
. Located 130 km (81 mi) southwest of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. The town occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe or Krialon was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, in lat. 29° N...
. Founded in around 4000 B.C., it is the oldest city in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and one of the oldest cities in Africa .
Name and etymology
Its name in English is also spelled as Fayum, Fayoum, Al Fayyum or El Faiyūm. Faiyum was previously officially named Madīnet el Faiyūm (ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
for The City of Faiyum). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis
Faiyum Oasis
The Faiyum Oasis is a depression or basin in the desert immediately to the west of the Nile south of Cairo. The extent of the basin area is estimated at between 490 mi² and 656 mi²...
, although it is commonly used by Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
today to refer to the city.
The modern name of the city comes from Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
/ efiom/peiom (whence the proper name payom), meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian
Egyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
pA y-m of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris
Lake Moeris
Lake Moeris is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It persists in modern times as a smaller lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 140 ft below sea-level, and covers about ....
.
Modern city
Faiyum has several large bazaars, mosqueMosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The canal called Bahr Yussef
Bahr Yussef
The Bahr Yussef, which roughly translates from Arabic as "the waterway of Joseph", is a canal which connects the Nile River with Fayyum in Egypt. This was originally in prehistoric times a natural offshoot of the Nile which created a lake to the west during high floods. Beginning with the 12th...
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
Qaitbay
Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa'it Bay was the eighteenth Burji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt from 872-901 A.H. . He was Circassian by birth, and was purchased by the ninth sultan Barsbay before being freed by the eleventh sultan Jaqmaq...
mosque, that was a gift from his wife to honor the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum. Mounds north of the city mark the site of Arsinoe
Arsinoe
Arsinoe , sometimes spelled Arsinoë, pronounced Arsinoi in modern Greek, may refer to:-Literature:* Arsinoe, a character in Le Misanthrope, a play by French playwright Molière...
, known to the ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
as Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe or Krialon was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, in lat. 29° N...
, where in ancient times the sacred crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
kept in Lake Moeris
Lake Moeris
Lake Moeris is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It persists in modern times as a smaller lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 140 ft below sea-level, and covers about ....
was worshipped.
The center of the city is on the canal, with the four waterwheels, that are adopted by the governorate of Fayoum as its national symbol, their chariots and bazaars are easy to spot.
Faiyum mummy portraits
Faiyum is the source of some famous death mask
Death mask
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits...
s or mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
portraits painted during the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
occupation of the area. The Egyptians continued their practice of burying their dead, despite the Roman preference for cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
. While under the control of the Roman Empire, Egyptian death masks were painted on wood in a pigmented wax
Wax
thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...
technique called encaustic
Encaustic
Encaustic may refer to:*Encaustic painting*Encaustic tile...
—the Faiyum mummy portraits represent this technique. While commonly believed to represent Greek settlers in Egypt, the Faiyum portraits instead reflect the complex synthesis of the predominant Egyptian culture and that of the elite Greek minority in the city.
Undisputed remains of early anthropoids date from the late Eocene and early Oligocene, about 34 million years ago, in the Fayyum area, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. One of the earliest fossil primates at Fayum is Catopithecus, dating to around 35 million years ago.
Famous Sites
- Qasr Qarun, 44 km (27 mi) from the city
- Qaitbay Mosque, in the city, and was built by the wife of the MamlukMamlukA Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
SultanSultanSultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Qaitaby - Hanging Mosque, built under the Ottoman Rule over Egypt
- Lahun Pyramids, 4 km (2½ mi) outside the city
- HawaraHawaraHawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. The first excavations at the site were made by Karl Lepsius, in 1843...
, archeological site 27 km (17 mi) from the city - Wadi Rayan, or Wadi ElrayanWadi ElrayanWadi El Rayan: Is a unique natural Egyptian Protectorate in Faiyum Governorate, under the supervision of The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency .-Geography:...
, the largest waterfalls in Egypt, around 50 km (31 mi) from the city
Notable people
- Tefta Tashko-KoçoTefta Tashko-KoçoTefta Tashko-Koço was a very well known Albanian singer of the 1930s. She was posthumously awarded the prestigious title People's Artist of Albania.-Life:...
, well known AlbanianAlbaniansAlbanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
singer was born in Faiyum, where her family lived at that time. - Saadia GaonSaadia GaonSaʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature...
, the influential Jewish teacher of the early 10th century, was originally from Faiyum, and often called al-Fayyumi.
See also
- CrocodilopolisCrocodilopolisCrocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe or Krialon was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, in lat. 29° N...
- Faiyum mummy portraits
- Faiyum Governorate
- Fayum alphabetFayum alphabetThe Fayum alphabet is a Greco-Phoenician abecedary shown on four copper tablets discovered in Fayum, Egypt. The tablets are dated to around 800 BC and represent the earliest known link between Greek letter forms and their Phoenician parent forms...
- Lake MoerisLake MoerisLake Moeris is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It persists in modern times as a smaller lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 140 ft below sea-level, and covers about ....
- Bahr YussefBahr YussefThe Bahr Yussef, which roughly translates from Arabic as "the waterway of Joseph", is a canal which connects the Nile River with Fayyum in Egypt. This was originally in prehistoric times a natural offshoot of the Nile which created a lake to the west during high floods. Beginning with the 12th...
- Roman Egypt
- PhiomiaPhiomiaPhiomia is an extinct genus of basal proboscid that lived in what is now Northern Africa during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene some 36-35 million years ago. "Phiomia serridens" means "saw-toothed animal of Faiyum"....
(an extinct relative of the elephant, named after Faiyum) - Wadi ElrayanWadi ElrayanWadi El Rayan: Is a unique natural Egyptian Protectorate in Faiyum Governorate, under the supervision of The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency .-Geography:...