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28-400: Iqer was a nome in ancient Egypt , the sixth Upper province. Its capital was Iunet, modern Denderah . The name of the nome was written with the sign of a crocodile. The reading of this sign is not certain, Iq is another option. On the white chapel of Senusret I appears a list of all Egyptian nomes. Here the goddess Hathor is called lady of Iq . Next to Iunet, where Hathor was worshipped,

56-679: A place called Shabet (identified by Henri Gauthier to be near modern Qena ) was lying in the sixth Upper Egyptian nome, another place was Khadj. The exact locations of these towns is uncertain. The nome is already mentioned in a Fourth Dynasty inscription dating from the reign of the Pharaoh Snofru . In the Ptolemaic (Greco-Roman) period, the nome was called Tentyrites , after Denderah, that appears in Greek sources as Tentyris . Several strategoi (governors) are known. Nome (Egypt) Each nome

84-689: Is a city in Middle Egypt . Located 100 kilometres (62 miles) southwest of Cairo , in the Faiyum Oasis , it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate . It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Originally founded by the ancient Egyptians as Shedet, its current name in English is also spelled as Fayum , Faiyum or al-Faiyūm . Faiyum was also previously officially named Madīnat al-Faiyūm ( Arabic for The City of Faiyum ). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to

112-499: Is on the canal, with four waterwheels which were adopted by the governorate of Fayoum as its symbol; their chariots and bazaars are easy to spot. The city is home of the football club Misr Lel Makkasa SC , that play in the Egyptian Premier League . The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh). The highest record temperatures was 46 °C (115 °F) on June 13, 1965, and

140-756: Is the source of some famous death masks or mummy portraits painted during the Roman occupation of the area. The Egyptians continued their practice of burying their dead, despite the Roman preference for cremation . While under the control of the Roman Empire, Egyptian death masks were painted on wood in a pigmented wax technique called encaustic —the Faiyum mummy portraits represent this technique. While previously believed to represent Greek settlers in Egypt, modern studies conclude that

168-528: The Faiyum Oasis , although it is commonly used by Egyptians today to refer to the city. The modern name of the city comes from Coptic  ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ / Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ epʰiom/peiom (whence also the personal name Ⲡⲁⲓⲟⲙ payom ), meaning the Sea or the Lake , which in turn comes from late Egyptian pꜣ-ym of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris ; the extinct elephant ancestor Phiomia

196-1170: The First Intermediate Period , a time that saw a breakdown in central authority lasting from the 7th–11th Dynasties which ended when one of the local rulers became strong enough to again assert control over the entire country as pharaoh. The nomes ( Ancient Egyptian : spꜣt , Coptic : ⲡⲑⲱϣ ) are listed in separate tables for "Isti" - "the two Egypts" ( Upper and Lower Egypt ). Note: Nome Name Inebu-hedj Memphites Khepesh Letopolites Imentet/Amentet Gynaikopolites Nit Resy/Nit Resu Prosopites Nit Resy/Resu Phthemphouth Nit Meḥtet Saites Khasuu Xoites Huu-(ges)-Imenti Menelaites Huu-(ges)-Iabty Heroopolites Andjety Bousirites Kem-Wer/Ka-kem Athribites (Ka)-Heseb Leontopolites Tjeb-Ka/Tjeb-Netjer Sebennytes Heka-Adj Heliopolites Khenti-Iabti Sethroites Djeḥuti Mendesios Hatmehyt Mendesios Behdet/Sema-Behdet Faiyum#Ancient history Faiyum ( / f aɪ ˈ j uː m / fy- YOOM ; Arabic : الفيوم , romanized :  el-Fayyūm , locally [elfæjˈjuːm] )

224-538: The Faiyum portraits instead represent mainly native Egyptians, reflecting the complex synthesis of the predominant Egyptian culture and that of the elite Greek minority in the city. The construction of the settlement of Philadelphia under Ptolemy II Philadelphus was recorded in detail by a 3rd-century BC Greek public official named Zeno (or Zenon, Greek : Ζήνων ). Zeno, a native of Kaunos in lower Asia Minor , came to Faiyum to work as private secretary to Apollonius ,

252-559: The Greeks called it "Crocodile City" ( Koinē Greek : Κροκοδειλόπολις Krokodeilópolis ), which was borrowed into Latin as Crocodīlopolis . The city worshipped a tamed sacred crocodile called, in Koine, Petsuchos , "the Son of Soukhos", that was adorned with gold and gem pendants. The Petsoukhos lived in a special temple pond and was fed by the priests with food provided by visitors. When Petsuchos died, it

280-663: The Nile Delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome; Bubastis was in the Eighteenth. Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered on Elephantine close to Egypt's border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan . From there the numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion along

308-666: The area has been further investigated by a team from the UCLA/RUG/UOA Fayum Project. According to Roger S. Bagnall , habitation began in the fifth millennium BC and a settlement was established by the Old Kingdom ( c.  2685 –2180 BC) called Shedet (Medinet el-Fayyum). It was the most significant centre of the cult of the crocodile god Sobek (borrowed from the Demotic pronunciation as Koinē Greek : Σοῦχος Soûkhos , and then into Latin as Suchus ). In consequence,

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336-472: The arrival of Christianity , Arsinoë became the seat of a bishopric , a suffragan of Oxyrhynchus , the capital of the province and the metropolitan see . Michel Le Quien gives the names of several bishops of Arsinoë, nearly all of them associated with one heresy or another. The Catholic Church , considering Arsinoë in Arcadia to be no longer a residential bishopric, lists it as a titular see . Fayyum

364-674: The division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Nile Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt , were first mentioned on the Palermo Stone , which was inscribed in the Fifth Dynasty . The names of a few, like the nome of Bubastis , appeared no earlier than the New Kingdom . Under

392-415: The finance minister to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (and later to Ptolemy III Euergetes ). During his employment, Zeno wrote detailed descriptions of the construction of theatres, gymnasiums, palaces and baths in the 250s and 240s BC, as well as making copious written records of various legal and financial transactions between citizens. During the winter of 1914–1915, a cache of over 2,000 papyrus documents

420-474: The kingdom. Ptolemy II Philadelphus also established a town at the edge of Faiyum named Philadelphia . It was laid out in a regular grid plan to resemble a typical Greek city, with private dwellings, palaces, baths and a theatre. Under the Roman Empire , Arsinoë became part of the province of Arcadia Aegypti . To distinguish it from other cities of the same name, it was called "Arsinoë in Arcadia". With

448-793: The narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient Thebes or contemporary Luxor ) was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, and Meidum in the Twenty-first. Some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt. For example, the Ptolemies renamed the Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe. Hadrian created a new nome, Antinoopolites, for which Antinoöpolis

476-614: The river: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and one of two arches, over which is built the Qaitbay mosque, a gift from his wife to honor the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum. Mounds north of the city mark the site of Arsinoe, known to the ancient Greeks as Crocodilopolis, where in ancient times the sacred crocodile kept in Lake Moeris was worshipped. The center of the city

504-526: The system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes. Lower Egypt (Egyptian: "Ā-meḥty"), from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea , comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara , and Giza , in the area occupied by modern-day Cairo . The nomes were numbered in a more or less orderly fashion south to north through

532-434: The use of Greek was widespread in Egypt. The availability of Greek records on Egypt influenced the adoption of Greek terms by later historians. The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to prehistoric Egypt (before 3100 BC ). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states , but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition, the ruler Menes completed the final unification. Not only did

560-503: Was headed by a nomarch . The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the pharaoh . Generally, when the national government was stronger, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. When the central government was weaker, however—such as during foreign invasions or civil wars—individual nomes would assert themselves and establish hereditary lines of succession. Conflicts among these different hereditary nomarchies were common, most notably during

588-432: Was identified as the former location of ancient Philadelphia. Today, the precise location of the town is unknown, although archaeologists have identified two sites in north-east Faiyum as the possible location for Philadelphia. Faiyum has several large bazaars, mosques , baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The canal called Bahr Yussef runs through the city, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over

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616-472: Was named after it. Archaeological evidence has found occupations around the Faiyum dating back to at least the Epipalaeolithic . Middle Holocene occupations of the area are most widely studied on the north shore of Lake Moeris , where Gertrude Caton Thompson and Elinor Wight Gardner did a number of excavations of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites, as well as a general survey of the area. Recently

644-570: Was replaced by another. Under the Ptolemaic Kingdom , the city was called Ptolemais Euergétis ( Koinē Greek : Πτολεμαῒς Εὐεργέτις ) until Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) renamed the city Arsinoë and the whole nome after the name of his sister-wife Arsinoe II (316–270 or 268), who was deified after her death as part of the Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great , the official religion of

672-540: Was ruled by a nomarch ( Ancient Egyptian : ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ , "Great Chief"). The number of nomes changed through the various periods of the history of ancient Egypt . The term nome comes from Ancient Greek νομός, nomós , meaning "district"; the Ancient Egyptian term was sepat or spAt . Today's use of the Ancient Greek rather than the Ancient Egyptian term came about during the Ptolemaic period , when

700-409: Was taken by smaller units called pagi . Eventually powerful local officials arose who were called pagarchs, through whom all patronage flowed. The pagarch's essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection. Later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. The pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over the pagi from which they originated. For most of the history, each nome

728-436: Was the capital. The nomes survived into Roman times. Under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called "nome coins", which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the Great . From AD 307/8, their place

756-519: Was the seat of Shahralanyozan , governor of the Sasanian Egypt (619–629). The 10th-century Bible exegete, Saadia Gaon , thought el-Fayyum to have actually been the biblical city of Pithom , mentioned in Exodus 1:11. Around 1245 CE, the region became the subject of the most detailed government survey to survive from the medieval Arab world, conducted by Abū ‘Amr ‘Uthman Ibn al-Nābulusī . Faiyum

784-588: Was uncovered by Egyptian agricultural labourers who were digging for sebakh near Kôm el-Kharaba el-Kebir . Upon examination by Egyptology scholars, these documents were found to be records written by Zeno in Greek and Demotic . These papyri, now referred to as the Zenon Archive or the Zenon Papyri , have provided historians with a detailed record of 3rd-century BC Philadelphia society and economy. The discovery site

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