Faiyum Oasis in the context of "Oases"

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⭐ Core Definition: 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. The extent of the basin area is estimated at between 1,270 km (490 mi) and 1,700 km (656 mi). 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). In prehistory it was a freshwater lake, but is today a saltwater lake. It is a source for 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. Between the beginning of 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.

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Faiyum Oasis in the context of Naqada II

Naqada II refers to the second Pre-dynastic archaeological stage centered around the Naqada region of Upper Egypt. It was formerly also called Gerzeh culture, after discoveries at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a small prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile but much farther north, where Flinders Petrie first characterized this period in the 19th century. Gerzeh is situated only several miles due east of the oasis of Faiyum, but was only peripheral to the Naqada culture. Depending on the sources, the Naqada II period is dated from c. 3,500 BC to c. 3,325 BC, from c. 3,650 BC to c. 3,300 BC, or from 3,500 to 3,200 BC. Naqada II had many types of potteries, which were categorized chronologically by Petrie from SD ("Sequence Date") 38 to 62. It is coeval with the Uruk period in Mesopotamia.

Naqada II is the second of three phases of the prehistoric Naqada cultures, and was preceded by Naqada I (also known as the "Amratian culture"), and followed by Naqada III (also known as the "protodynastic" or "Semainian culture").

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Faiyum Oasis in the context of Faiyum

Faiyum (/fˈjm/ fy-YOOM; Arabic: الفيوم, romanizedel-Fayyūm, locally [elfæjˈjuːm]) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located 100 kilometres (62 miles) southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location.

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Faiyum Oasis in the context of Medinet Madi library

The Medinet Madi library is a collection of Manichaean texts discovered at Medinet Madi in the Faiyum region of Egypt in 1929. There is a total of seven codices, some of which have been split up and held in different collections across Europe. The texts, many of which remain unpublished and untranslated today, were composed in the Lycopolis dialect of Coptic during the 5th century A.D.

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