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Fayyūm, al‐

Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names | 2005 | 700+ words | Copyright

Fayyūm, al‐, Egypt Madīnat al‐Fayyūm ‘The Lake’ from the Coptic Fiom; both al‐ and the initial F mean ‘The’ and iom ‘lake’. The ancient Egyptians modified this to pā‐yom with the same meaning; al‐ was only added later. The city lies in Egypt's largest oasis, also called al‐Fayyūm (or el‐Faiyūm), which was once a lake known as Birket Qārūn; it now comprises only about a fifth of the oasis on the north‐western side and is known as Lake Moeris. The Greeks called the area Krokodeilōspolis because they considered the crocodiles to be sacred, and later Arsinoë after one of the wives of Ptolemy II Philadelphus†. The city is located in the rough centre of the dried‐up part of Birket Qārūn. The name is also that of a governorate in Upper Egypt. The previous name meant ‘Town of the Lake’.

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