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FAYUM
Egypt’s largest oasis, about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Cairo. In the center is Lake Qarun, Egypt’s only large inland lake, which today covers 90 square miles (144.8 square kilometers), is about 17 feet (5.2 meters) deep, and has a surface 147 feet (44.8 meters) below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. Lake Qarun is surrounded by about a half million acres of farmland. In ancient times Qarun evidently was much larger than it is today.
Many ancient writers, following fifth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus, believed that the lake, which made the Fayum possible, was an artificial construction. But modern investigations have concluded that it was spring-fed. Sometime after 2000 BC, during the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt, a canal was dug with sluice gates to connect Lake Qarun and the Nile River. Rulers during that period also constructed an irrigation system and brought much of the area under cultivation.
Prosperity of the Fayum declined when Ramses II and others used buildings of the area for stone quarries. The Ptolemies restored its prosperity during the third and second centuries BC, when many Greek colonists arrived. In addition to exploration of the monuments of the Fayum, archaeologists have unearthed quantities of papyrus literature written in Greek. These papyri have helped to clarify the meaning of some words used in the NT.