The archaeological site of Madinet Madi in Fayoum was officially opened to the public on Sunday following a comprehensive development programme. Nevine El-Aref attended the event Lying in the parched desert at the southwestern edge of Fayoum, the most easterly of the Western Desert oases, are the ruins of a city that flourished during the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt and in subsequent periods up to Roman times. The site, now known as Madinet Madi (City of the Past), is considered to be the most important and impressive archaeological site in Fayoum. The ruins reveal Madinet Madi's vast and impressive span of Egypt's history that began 4,000 years ago. It all began with a village called Dja, which was founded as part of the large scale reclamation in the area around the lake in Fayoum of what was realised to be fertile land. During the reign of King Amenemhat III, construction was begun of a temple dedicated to the cobra goddess Renenutet and the crocodile god Sobek of Shedet. The construction was completed by his successor Amenemhat IV. The town of Dja was abandoned towards the end of the New Kingdom and the temple fell to ruin. Eventually it was covered by sand and all but disappeared. During the Ptolemaic era, however, in the reign of Ptolemy II and his successors, Dja was rebuilt and gained special importance under its Greek name of Namouthis. The temple was rediscovered and restored. The sacred area was extended to the north with a tall enclosure wall in which a new temple was built. The town's vital role on the criss- crossing network of desert trails continued into the Roman period, but was abandoned at the end of the third century when the inhabitants began to move towards the southern urban area where they built new houses and formed a new community. Construction was resumed in the fourth and fifth centuries, when a fortified camp named Castrum Narmoiutheos was built on the eastern outskirts of the town. The camp was the residence the soldiers of the Cohors IV Numidarumm and bears witness to the strategic importance of Narmoiuthis. The camp had a cistern that was connected to a network of older canals. The southern part of the city was settled permanently during the early Christian era, and was most prosperous during the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries when numerous churches were built. At the time the town, then named Terenute, was a major centre of Manichaeism. During the eighth and ninth centuries it was partly occupied by Arabs, who gave the town its current name of Madinet Madi. This name was also recorded on the map of the Fayoum drawn by the savants of Napoleon Bonaparte's mission and included in the Déscription de l'Egypte. A mission from the University of Pisa, which has been carrying out exploration work at Madinet Madi since 1978, have discovered 10 Coptic churches dating from the fifth to the seventh centuries. They have also found a Ptolemaic temple dedicated to two crocodiles which incorporated a unique barrel-vaulted structure used for the incubation of crocodile eggs, as well as a Roman-period fortified camp dating from the reign of Diocletian (284-305). In 2004, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy, the Pisa team restored blocks engraved with four hymns to the goddess, Isis written in ancient Greek. Madinet Madi has now been brought to life again and has been placed on the map of Egypt, thanks to the Institutional Support of the Supreme Council of Antiquities for Environmental Monitoring and Management of Cultural Heritage Sites (ISSEMM), which began in 2005. It was made possible with a generous grant of ê3,500,000 from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This new development project aims to preserve the monuments of Madinet Madi and make it a more tourist- friendly visitor destination. So far, the project has successfully cleared the archaeological site of intrusive sand and restored its monuments. A comprehensive archaeological survey and mapping of the site have also been undertaken, as has the building of a visitor centre and an ecolodge. On Sunday Zahi Hawass, minister of state for antiquities affairs, and the Italian Ambassador to Egypt, Claudio Pacifico, celebrated the end of the second phase of the Madinet Madi Development Project in the governorate of Fayoum and the opening of its visitor centre. Hawass has heralded the project as a successful example of cooperation between Egypt and Italy. The site of Madinet Madi and its development programme are a model for the successful integration of an archaeological site within its protectorate, in this case the nearby Wadi Al-Rayan protectorate. Hisham El-Leithi, the Egyptian director of ISSEMM, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the centre would provide visitors with information on the history and natural environment of the archaeological area and the architectural features of the monuments they visit. There is also a teaching and exhibition space with scale models of the monuments, replicas of the stelae and statues found at Madinet Madi, graphic reproduction, photographs and illustrative panels. There are also bookshop, a cafeteria and a lecture hall. The 20-room ecolodge is situated in the desert area, and has been planned to make a zero impact on the environment. The lodge provides a relaxing atmosphere for visitors after a tour of the monuments. "They can also spend a night here so as to continue their visit to the site the following day," El-Leithi said. Visitors may also walk through the Madinet Madi archaeological park which encompasses the southern altar; the two lions with Protarchus dedicated in Greek to the goddess Isis; the southern kiosk or small Hellenistic temple; a second pair of lions; the northern kiosk and the portal of Isis in the enclosure wall of the temple complex. The vestibule of Heracleodorus dedicated to Isis Thermouthis in 96 BC; the storerooms; service buildings; priests' residences and headquarters of religious associations; the second court and the building with paintings which was probably the seat of the Association of Anubis are also among the monuments in the park.
