Definition: Faiyum is an ancient oasis located in Upper Egypt, in the Western Desert southwest of Cairo. It is a depression, lower than sea level with dimensions of 50 miles (80 km) east–west and about 35 miles (56 km) north–south. Its ancient Lake Moeris connected to the Nile via a canal (Bahr Yusuf). It was a prehistoric agricultural center. During the First Intermediate Period, the central area of Egypt and the Nile Delta were controlled by kings at Herakleopolis on the southern edge of Faiyum. The other districts (nomes) were controlled from Thebes.
Faiyum is also the name given to tempera or encaustic funerary portraits from the area from the early Christian era.
Alternate Spellings: Fayyum, Fayum
Examples: Faiyum's capital was Shedit, which honored Sobek, the crocodile god, for which reason the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis. When Ptolemy II's wife Arsinoe died, she was made patron of the area. The nome was called Arsinoite.
Main Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica and The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
