Ruins of Karanis

Karanis Museum

Dimai

Madinet Madi

Fayoum Portraits

Tebtunis

Temple of Dionysias

Located at Fayoum and founded during the reign of Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC, Karanis was built around a temple to the god Petesuchos, a crocodile god. As the town prospered and grew another temple was built to the north for the god Sobek. The south temple has three rooms that are linked by a wide vestibule. The main doorway bears an inscription of the original dedicatee, Nero, which was later altered to that of his uncle, Claudius. A large altar in the sanctuary contains a large hole to hide a priest acting as an oracle, which was common in many temples.. Steam rooms and pools of the Roman baths can still be seen in the north temple, which is now mostly ruin. Many everyday well-preserved objects and papyrus can be seen in the nearby museum.

Many artifacts found within the Fayoum region are housed in the Karanis Museum. Displays include delicate glassware and pottery, females heads (as found in Alexandria) which are thought to have been used to model hairstyles, and a Fayoum portrait. Many of the mummies found in this area had portrait of the deceased painted on them. The museum is well laid out, and has recently been renovated.

Located at Fayoum, Dimai was one of the first settlements in the in the area to be abandoned.  The ruins seem masterious, with much ancient debrie scattered about.  This was a fishing village and carabanserai.  There is a processional way nearby that stretched to the Temple of Sobek.

Notable is the Soknopaious Nesos, the Island of the Crocodile God, with its mud-brick walls. Nearby are cellars which were used to store oil and wine, and unusual in that their roofs are still intact.  There are also the remains of two temples, one built of stone and the other of mud-brick.  Several miles to the east is also the limestone temple of Qasr El-Sagha, which has seven chapels, but which little is known of its purpose.

The ancient Egyptians believed in resurrection after death as a result of their observation of the sun and the Nile flood: the continuity of the sunrise everyday in the mornings, its vitality, and latter its decline on sunset .Similarly, the Nile Flood with its strength and vitality as a source of welfare for their coming harvesting year to nourish their "dead" land , and latter its decline with a promise to return back to return life to the land. Preserving the deceased body through mummification was important, in belief of the return of the "Ba": the soul and the "Ka":the guardian spirit to the body in the afterlife world. Similar to preserving the body, the features of the deceased were drawn to allow the spirits to recognize its bodies.Through times, this process of documenting the features of the deceased has changed until the Greco-Roman period (31B.C-324 AD) when personal portraits drawn on wood or linen were placed on the face of the mummy .

Some of these portraits are painted in encaustic powdered pigments mixed with beeswax and applied hot with scalpel and brush, while others are tempera or water based colors. These portraits show different persons in their best clothes and jewelry. Usually with a missing smile leaving to the eyes the opportunity to express the joy of the soul for having freedom from the body. The large and black eyes of the deceased seem to be fixed on the distant kingdom to be discovered when their earthly life come to an end. A white circle on the cornea reveals the presence of light in front of the deceased, coming from the new kingdom!!

The Fayoum portraits are considered a link between the art of portraiture in ancient Egyptian times and the Middle ages and also greatly influenced Coptic iconography in Egypt.

Tebtunis was built during the 22nd Dynasty and inhabited by Greek and Roman settlers.  There is little left of the temple complex, but a paved path leads through the ruins which has two limestone lions situated as sentries. Much is covered by sand, and nearby are the remains of a Roman aqueduct.