El-Fayoum

Although usually described as an oasis, El-Fayoum is not fed by underground water like the Western Desert oases, but by Nile water transported to this natural triangular depression by a series of canals. The water comes from the Ibrahimeya Canal at Assiut, via the Bahr Yusef, which itself feeds into a number of smaller canals west of Fayoum City. Having irrigated the oasis the water runs into Lake Qaroun which, despite having dramatically shrunk over the past few thousand years, is still Egypt’s largest natural salt-water lake. About 70,000 years ago the Nile flood first broke through the low mountains that surround Fayoum to form Lake Qaroun and the surrounding marshes. This is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, sites of agriculture in the world as plants that grew around the lake were collected, land was fenced in, and dry and guarded storage areas were built. Even today Fayoum is still famous for fruit, vegetables and chickens and to describe food as fayoum means that it is delicious.