al-Fayyūm

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Schedet in hieroglyphics
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D46
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Schedet
Šdt

Greek Krokodilopolis / Arsinoe
Al-Fayyūm (Egypt)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Location in Egypt

Al-Fayyūm , also Faijum , Fajum or Fajjum ( Schedet in ancient Egypt , Crocodilopolis in Greek , Arsinoe ; Arabic الفيوم al-Fayyūm ), is a city with 475,139 inhabitants (2017 census) in northern Egypt , about 90 kilometers southwest of Cairo . It is located in the large depression of the same name( Fayyum Basin ) at 24  m above sea ​​level , 250 km from the Mediterranean coast.

The oasis city on the fertile edge of the Libyan desert , which has been inhabited for at least 6000 years, is now the capital of the al-Fayyum governorate . Its population has quadrupled since the 1950s. The area is known archeologically for the numerous mummy portraits that have been found.

Fayyum Basin

The city and its surrounding area form the center of the oasis-like Fayyum basin , which is connected to the Nile via the Bahr Yusuf (Joseph's Canal) . In the north, in a depression, there is the outflowless lake Qarun ( Karunsee, Birkat al-Qarun ), which was artificially created around 3900 years ago as an additional floodplain for the Nile.

The Fayyum Basin ( Coptic : pa iom "the lake") is known as the "vegetable garden of Cairo " and was an extensive marshland in predynastic times . In the Middle Kingdom , under the kings Amenemhet II and Sesostris II , these swamps were drained by canals and dykes in order to make the area usable for agriculture .

History and archeology

Pharaoh Sesostris III. and his son Amenemhet III. (Reigns from 1878 BC to 1814 BC) built the huge Joseph's Canal , which connected the Nile with the swamps of the Fayyum basin . An ingenious system of dams, reservoirs and side channels diverted water from the Nile into the Fayyum marshland, creating the huge artificial Moeris Lake , which contained 50 billion cubic meters of water. The construction project in Fayyum gave the pharaoh the opportunity to regulate the Nile, prevent destructive floods and supply the land with valuable water in times of drought. It also made the marshland of the Fayyum Basin, which was surrounded by barren desert and teeming with crocodiles, the granary of Egypt. On the banks of the artificial lake, the new city of Schedet (al-Fayyūm), which the Greeks called "Crocodilopolis", the city of crocodiles, was built. It was ruled by the temple of the crocodile god Sobek , who was equated with the pharaoh. In Roman times, coins in the name of Arsinoites were minted until the 2nd century AD (most recently under Emperor Hadrian ), some of which had the (fictitious) portrait of Pharaoh Amenemhet III on the reverse. demonstrate.

Inside the basin

In the Fayyum basin, the labyrinth described by Herodotus and Strabo is said to have been, which is connected to the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Amenemhet III. from the 12th dynasty is associated. He built his second pyramid in Hawara , which the labyrinth was supposedly in front of. According to reports, it is said to have had more than 3,000 (Herodotus) or more than 1,500 (Strabo) rooms, and according to Herodotus, "the upper rooms exceeded the level of human work".

In the northeast of the basin lies the ancient settlement of Bakchias (today Kom Umm el-Atl ), whose heyday was in the Greco-Roman era.

Eastern valley exit

Today's El-Lahun is located at the eastern entrance of the Fayyum Basin , near an ancient necropolis of the Middle Kingdom and the ancient city of Hetep-Sesostris with numerous important finds.

Pool environment

Excavations in the cemeteries around the Fayyum Basin have brought to light colored wooden panels ( mummy portraits ) from the first centuries AD, which can be seen today in various museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo are. They are portrait-like images painted in large, simple shapes that are presented in a narrow format. One of the artists who were inspired by this in their self-portraits is Paula Modersohn-Becker .

See also

literature

  • Carolin Arlt: The Fayyûm in Hellenism and Imperial Era. Case studies on multicultural life in ancient times . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-447-06925-0 .

Web links

Commons : Faiyum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Hannig: Large Concise Dictionary Egyptian-German: (2800 - 950 BC) . von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 , p. 1192.
  2. Egypt: Governments & Cities - Population Statistics, Maps, Charts, Weather and Web Information. Retrieved August 13, 2018 .
  3. Yuval Noah Harari, Andreas Wirthensohn: Homo Deus: A story of tomorrow. 1st edition, CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-70401-7 , p. 222.
  4. Kampmann / Ganschow, The coins of the Roman mint in Alexandria, Regenstauf 2008, page 366; Kölner Münzkabinett, catalog of the 111th auction, May 2019, No. 152

Coordinates: 29 ° 18 '  N , 30 ° 50'  E