Fayoum

An oasis on Cairo's doorstep

Fayoum is a vast fertile depression west of the Nile, irrigated since Antiquity. The Egyptian tourist board describes it as Cairo residents' weekend getaway: farmland, dunes, lakes and villages, less than two hours' drive from the capital. Foreign travellers come less often, yet in a single day you can see whale fossils, waterfalls in the desert and Graeco-Roman sites.

The town of Medinet el-Fayoum was called Shedet in Antiquity. It was the great centre of the cult of Sobek, the crocodile god, hence its Greek name Crocodilopolis; a sacred crocodile lived in the temple pool, fed by the priests. Fayoum's ancient sites have been on UNESCO's Tentative List (UNESCO: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the Tentative List gathers the sites a State intends to nominate for World Heritage) since 1994.

Wadi al-Hitan, whales in the desert

Wadi al-Hitan, the Valley of the Whales, has been on the World Heritage List since 2005. Lying on the sand are skeletons, often complete, of archaeocetes, the earliest whales, now extinct. They show a stage of evolution: the shift from a land mammal to a marine animal. The Al-Hitan fossils are those of the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of losing their hind limbs. UNESCO regards it as the world's most important site for demonstrating this evolution, given the number, concentration and accessibility of the fossils.

The visit is on foot. The valley is a strictly protected zone within the Wadi el-Rayan Protected Area, and vehicles do not enter: you leave the car at the visitor area, then follow the marked trail from one skeleton to the next. The Fossil and Climate Change Museum, opened in January 2016 with support from Italy and the United Nations Development Programme, displays the largest intact fossil of Basilosaurus isis.

The access track crosses the desert; trips from Cairo use a 4x4 (four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle). Set off early, ahead of the heat.

The lakes

• Lake Qarun, in the north of the depression, is one of the oldest natural saltwater lakes in the world. Its shores are lined with villages and hotels; you can sail it by felucca, the traditional sailing boat, and watch birds.
• The Wadi el-Rayan lakes, about 65 km south-west of Medinet el-Fayoum, were created by Fayoum's agricultural drainage water. Two lakes, one above the other, are linked by waterfalls, the largest in Egypt. The protected area, created in 1997, has been listed under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands since 2012.
• Magic Lake, a lake among the dunes, is added to 4x4 outings, which also offer sandboarding down the dunes.

A day or two nights

The round trip from Cairo fits into a day of about ten hours: Wadi al-Hitan in the morning, the Wadi el-Rayan waterfalls in the afternoon, a stop at Lake Qarun on the way back. It can be done, but you spend much of the day in the car.

Sabaro instead recommends one or two nights on site, in Tunis Village above Lake Qarun. This is the potters' village: the Swiss ceramicist Evelyne Porret, who settled there in the mid-1980s, founded a pottery school that brought the village to life, and the workshops can be visited. Lazib Inn, a small 21-suite hotel with spa and pools, overlooks the lake.

On Fridays and Saturdays, Egypt's weekend, Cairo residents flock to Fayoum. On weekdays the sites and the village are quieter.

Ancient Fayoum

For those who want to add half a day of archaeology:

• Karanis (Kom Aushim), a Ptolemaic farming town inhabited until the early 5th century. Its dry climate preserved many papyri; a small museum shows objects found in the region.
• Qasr Qarun (Dionysias), a Graeco-Roman temple west of the lake.
• Medinet Madi (Narmouthis), laid out as an archaeological park.
• The Hawara and el-Lahun pyramids, from the Middle Kingdom, and, more than 30 km north-east of Medinet el-Fayoum, the Meidum pyramid, one of the oldest in Egypt, where you will often be almost alone.

Safety

Foreign ministries do not all give the same advice for Fayoum and the surrounding desert: your country's appears in the "Travel advice" table on this page. Sabaro advises keeping to the developed sites, with a guide.