Category Archives: Cultural Heritage of Fayoum

Culture and Art of Fayoum,Egypt

The Story of the Fayoum Pottery Book

Published by the American University in Cairo Press, the Fayoum Pottery book by Mr. Neil Hewison is a lavishly illustrated book with over 150 full-color photographs of unique designs and rare methods, providing an in-depth look at the pottery produced in the Fayoum. The book reveals the stories of the three villages and the skilled potters who make their living in Fayoum, looking at how they learned their trade and how they work, from the preparation of the clay to the formation of the pots on the wheel or by hand, to the decoration, the glazing, and the firing, and finally to the display or distribution and sale of the finished product.

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Hamdi Saif al Nasr House

Saif Al Nasr House

The house is located on a long a small peninsula of land called Abu Neema projecting into Lake Qaroun in Fayoum. Owned by Hamdi Pasha Saif Al Nasr who was Egypt’s former minister of defense during the time of king Farouk, the house was intended to be used during the landlord’s periodic visits to his estate here.

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Unexpected Treasures 30 Years of excavations in Um El Burigat ( Teptynis ) at Cairo Museum

For over fifty years no archaeologist came to work in the village’s ruins. Excavations only restated at Tebtynis in October 1988 when the Franco-Italian mission of the Institut francias d’archaeologie orientale and the University of Milan set up camp there. After the excavations, the plundering and the destruction of the first half of the 20th century, the site appeared to be cleared out. In reality, some areas were still untouched. After evaluating the state of the area, the mission re-opened the site, confident of exposing additional buildings, recovering a quantity of artifacts and filling in gaps in the history of Tebtynis. The results were so encouraging that the team has already worked thirty years at the site and plans to continue its investigations there.

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