Kiman Faris was originally a city which existed and thrived during the Middle and New Kingdoms, including under Amenemhat III about 3,850 years ago and later under Ramses II. Later, this city gained a new name after the Arab invasion in 641 AC, Kiman Faris, which means Faris’ mounds.
Location of Kiman Faris
The ruins of the ancient capital are located in the northern part of Fayoum city and are called Kiman Faris.
History of Kiman Faris
According to an ancient legend recorded by Diodorus (90 BC – 30 BC), King Menes (the semi-mythical uniter of Upper and Lower Egypt) was once on a hunting expedition in the Fayoum. His dogs attacked him near the lake, but his life was saved by a crocodile, which carried him across the water to safety.
Later, Kiman Faris became one of the largest Greco-Roman cities in Fayoum. It was established by the Greek king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285 BC – 246 BC) and was initially inhabited by the mercenaries of his army.
Until 1887 Kiman Faris was a wide archaeological area of about 2.4 × 2.2 km that spread north of el-Fayoum city and contained the ruins of the great temple of Sobek, some late cemeteries and part of the old town (Shedet, Crokodilopolis, and Arsinoe).
Kiman Faris was delimited to the south by the modern town and Bahr Yusouf, the east by the Bahr Tirsa, the west by the Bahr es-Sauwieh and the north by cultivated land. After the significant expansion of Medinet el-Fayoum during the 1960s and 1970s, the archaeological area almost disappeared under new residential and administrative districts.
Five areas still survive under the control of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. They are known as the following:
- Area 1, the temple of Ramses II
- Area 2 Kiman Fares, or the temple of Ptolemy
- Area 3, the small bath
- Area 4, the great bath
The last area was situated inside the enclosure of the University of Medinet el-Fayyum. Still, it is now transferred to Karanis and on display in the open-air museum at the ancient archaeological site of Karanis, Kom Ushim, 30 km north of Fayoum city.
Shedet Open Air Museum in Kom Ushim
At an October 26 ceremony and reception at the Ministry of Antiquities, Ambassador Stephen Beecroft joined Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty in announcing the opening of the Kiman Faris Open Air Museum. The museum, which is about to open in Karanis, is supported by the United States and Egyptian governments in partnership with the Cairo-based firm ARCHiNOS Architecture.
The Ambassador and Minister toured a 55-photo exhibit of the work done at Karanis over the last two years and viewed a short documentary film entitled “A Glimpse of a Lost City.” Ambassador Beecroft noted that “this project shows how appreciating cultural heritage is one of the best ways to foster understanding between nations and peoples.”
Karanis in Kom Aushim, located north of the city of Fayyum, was an essential agricultural settlement for the Greeks and Romans. This town existed and thrived during the Middle and New Kingdoms, including under Amenemhat III about 3,850 years ago and later under Ramses II. The Kiman Faris Open Air Museum displays rare pieces from ancient Fayyum.
The Embassy contributed $97,000 to the project through the “Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation,” a worldwide competition organized by the US Department of State in over 100 countries. The open-air museum and restoration project in Karanis is one of several initiatives the US government has funded over the years, in partnership with the Ministry of Antiquities and others, to help preserve and protect ancient sites in Egypt.
City of Crocodilopolis
Some 4.300 years ago, the pyramid texts spoke about the city of Shedet in the Fayoum Oasis, where the crocodile god Sobek was worshipped. About five hundred years later, the city prospered during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, when the swamps of the Fayoum were drained to develop the oasis for agriculture. It remained a significant religious centre in which the worship of the sacred crocodiles continued, and in the Greaco-Roman times, the city was named Crocodilopolis.
Temple of Sobek
For Millennia the columns of the grand temple built approximately 3800 years ago by the Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Amenemhat III for the god Sobek of Shedet were lying in the agricultural fields. Many pieces were broken up in the Greco-Roman period to reuse the precious Aswan red granite from which they were made. In the 1980s, these scattered remnants of a once great city were brought to Karanis. In 2014 a selection of pieces was displayed as part of the Beyt Sobek visitor’s centre in Karanis.
City of Shedet
The great city of Shedet/Crocodilopolis, or Arsinoe (as it was named in the Ptolemaic era), kept changing through the centuries. The Ptolemies dismantled the monumental middle kingdom temple of Sobek. Earlier buildings were replaced when the city thrived in Roman times and later as seats of Christian bishops. When Medinat Al Fayoum grew under Muslim Rulers, the relics of the ancient town at Kiman Faris, just north of it, were reduced to rubble heaps and, by now, have vanished almost without a trace.
