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10 - 16 January 2002
Issue No.568
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Al-Ahram Weekly
Online 10 - 16 January 2002 Issue No.568 | ||
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Guide to an Egyptian St Ives
The Fayoum: A History and Guide, R Neil Hewison, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. pp136
The splendid cover, reproducing a photograph of the Fayoum by the author, is the door to this book, which combines all the information one could want about a region of Egypt that is conveniently close to Cairo and that possesses many of the things the capital so signally lacks, among them beautiful scenery, peace and quiet and unpolluted air.
Besides providing his reader with descriptions of interesting sites in the Fayoum from the Middle Kingdom and the Ptolemaic periods, the author includes all sorts of practical information about this grand oasis, such as where to stay and eat, where to catch taxis (and how much to pay for certain destinations), as well as general details about the life of the Fayoum farmers, including what kinds of crops are grown there.
The history of the province, with all its ups and downs, makes fascinating reading. In Ancient Egypt, the then capital of the Fayoum was cult centre for the crocodile god Sobek, and it also played a major religious role during the later reign of the Ptolemies. During the reign of Ptolemy II, who founded the famous Library of Alexandria, Greek army veterans were settled in the area on reclaimed land.
However, one of the province's best claims to fame derives from the uncannily lifelike "Fayoum portraits", which date from the first two centuries of the Christian era and were placed originally in tombs. First discovered by the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1888, the majority -- now scattered throughout the world's museums -- came from Hawwara, just outside modern Fayoum City. Today, sadly, the Hawwara Pyramid, having lost its limestone casing, is a mere lump of dark mud-bricks looking, in the words of the writer, "like a natural plum- pudding."
The Fayoum, in particular the area around Lake Qaroun -- which has an area of 214 square kilometres even though it is known locally, perhaps affectionately, as the birka (pond) -- is a birdwatcher's paradise. A short section on 'Wildlife' in Hewison's book gives information about the area's birds and mammals, which include lovely birds like hoopoes, bee-eaters and hovering kestrels that are as common as sparrows. Flamingos come to the western end of the lake in winter to feed in the shallows. The locals call these warrad, a word derived from the Arabic for "rose, and it is fascinating to learn that for the Ancient Egyptians the word for flamingo was also the word for "red".
Mongooses can regularly be seen in the Fayoum, and among the many titbits of knowledge that exist about these animals, one of which is the beloved hero of a famous children's story by the British writer Rudyard Kipling, is that, in the days when crocodiles were still common, they would throw themselves into the open jaws of these fearsome creatures and eat their way through the animals' entrails, later emerging from the dead body.
Among the additions that Hewison has made to the first edition of his book, which came out in 1984, is a brief mention of the Fayoum village of Tunis, which he calls 'The St. Ives of Egypt' after the Cornish fishing village in the West of England. Twenty years ago, Tunis was little more than a tiny farming settlement, even if it did have spectacular views of the birka. Since then, however, Tunis has been taken up by intrepid individuals who have made themselves homes there. Today, artists and intellectuals from Cairo, both Egyptian and foreign, have built, in the writer's words, "tasteful (and occasionally not so tasteful) houses" along the ridge overlooking the lake, making this a village where the villagers mix with a motley crowd of newcomers.
Finally, the sixteen pages of full-colour photographs, taken by the author, that illustrate the text make this book a model of what a successful guide should be.
Reviewed by Denys Johnson-Davies
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