A highly recommended day trip from Cairo is to visit the Fayyoum area. It is a vast depression within the Western desert, averaged some 50 metre below sea level, about 18,000 square kilometres in area and some 100km southwest of Cairo. It was formed 190 – 136 million years ago and was turned over the years into a green paradise by the Nile's underground water. Its deepest part is Birkat Qarun, Lake Qarun, formed over 1000s of years with the drainage water after the Nile feeds its surrounding areas turning desert into green cultivated lands. The lake has an area of 55,000 acres and produces enough fish to feed the local population. The ancient Egyptians called the area She resi – the Southern Lake but it is believed that it is the Coptic name Payom, The Lake, that is the origin of the present day name Fayyoum. Fayyoum has some unique Ancient Egyptian monuments including three pyramids, one of which is the pyramid of Hawara whose temple Herodotus called “The Labyrinth” as it covers an area of 60,000 square metres and it is believed to have had more than 3,000 rooms. The remains of many inhabited centres that flourished in the Fayyoum area since the Greco-Roman era are currently the subject of excavations, studies and restoration. Egyptians started to inhabit Fayyoum 9000 BC; stone artifacts show that the people then had a Paleolithic culture. But it was in the Middle Kingdom that the region acquired great importance. The part of the Nile which feeds Fayyoum is a canal called Bahr Youssef (Joseph), Youssef's Canal, referring to Joseph of the Qur'an and the Bible, as Fayyoum was in his time the food basket of Egypt producing crops, fruit and vegetables on its fertile land. The province of Fayyoum has some 3 million inhabitants, and its capital, the city of Fayyoum, is famous for its ancient waterwheels, said to be in operation since the Ptolemaic era. The city was founded in around 4000 BC; the oldest city in Egypt and one of the oldest in the world. The area, especially in the village of Tunis, is dotted with pottery shops where Egyptians and Europeans (mostly Italian and French) work on-site to produce beautiful handmade poetry to sell to visitors, most on a day trip from Cairo. For those who wish to spend few nights there are a number of boutique hotels built in the local architecture style. If you are looking for a 5 star hotel, there is “The Auberge”, a historical hotel which was frequented by King Farouk for bird watching, hunting and gambling. Fayyoum is frequented by 70 species of migratory birds, one of which the sooty falcon (Falco Concolor) comes only to nest and others come to rest before flying farther south. Other species include ducks (Anas and Aythya gen), and the stork (Cironia ciconio). Fayyoum is famous for its pigeon lofts, built by locals to attract and house wild pigeons. They are scattered throughout the country side and add a charming element to the landscape. The pigeons are a good source of meat. Wadi el-Rayan, designated a protected area in 1989, is a 60 metre below sea level depression within Fayyoum, very rich in wildlife and fossils. Wadi el-Rayan, meaning in Arabic “the valley of drinking water” has two man-made lakes connected by Egypt's only waterfalls. The three waterfalls are formed naturally between the two lakes, named the Upper Lake (to the north) and the Lower Lake. A small canal supplies Nile water to the two lakes. In the 1960s, when Lake Qarun was swollen with the drainage water and started to flood adjacent lands, the project of digging an area to be used as a container basin for Lake Qarun's overflows became necessary. In 1973 Lake Qarun started filling an upper lake and in the following decade a lower lake. The two lakes now cover some 100 square kilometres. In 1989, most of the area was declared protected territory to guarantee the survival of the ecosystem, On the western side of the lower lake a plot of desert, some 5,000 hectares has been reclaimed for agriculture. Around the lakes some 2,000 fishermen make their living from the two lakes and also using some 7,000 hectares for fish-farming. Near Wadi el-Rayan is Wadi el-Hitan, the Valley of the Whales which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage in 2005. It is an extraordinary open air museum containing the world's only 40-million year old skeletons of basilosaurus, the ancestor of the whale, 400 of them, each some 20m long. The skeletons show the evolution of whales from terrestrial to marine life. To do justice, Fayyoum deserves more than a one-day visit, to start unlocking the secrets of the Nile journey when it went underground. “Dr. M. Elmasry” [email protected] “I welcome progressive alternative media. The Canadian Charger is one of the best,” said Dr James Winter, professor of communication studies at the University of Windsor and author of Lies the Media Tell Us (Black Rose Books). www.thecanadiancharger.com
