EL FAYOUM

   In Arabic al-Fayyum, it is a city located 110 km southwest of Cairo, on the shores of the homonymous lake, in the oasis of Faiyum. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It has a total population of about 3.5 million inhabitants (2018).
   The Faiyum is an immense oasis in the Egyptian desert, which extends below sea level within a huge depression of the Libyan desert and comprises an almost circular oasis. It is located about thirty kilometers west of the Nile. With an area of 1,270 km², the Fayoum is a different region from the Nile valley and other desert oases: its fields are fertilized and irrigated thanks to a channel that comes from the Nile, the Bahr Yosef "Joseph Channal", which runs for hundreds of kilometers almost parallel to the river, through a desert depression located east of the valley, to Lake Faiyum (Moeris in Greek), a large area of fresh water in ancient times, but currently of salt water and smaller dimensions. The canal, originally an irrigation project of the Theban pharaohs, was restored by Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt in the 12th century.
   Thanks to the Bahr Yosef, from the 12th Dynasty, the Faiyum was transformed into a rich agricultural region. The area of ​​Lake Birket Qarun is about 200 km². Unlike a typical oasis, whose fertility depends only on the water obtained from its springs, the cultivated land in the Faiyum consists of silt from the Nile contributed by the Bahr Yosef.
   To the southwest of the Faiyum, and the province, is the Gharak depression. Wadi Rayan is another totally barren depression of 725 km², located to the west of Gharak. The entire region is below sea level, and except for the canal entrance, it is surrounded by the Libyan hills. The lowest part of the province, the extreme northwest, is occupied by Lake Birket Qarun which is 43 meters lower than the level of the Mediterranean Sea.