capital of Al-Fayyūm muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Egypt. The town is located in the southeastern part of the governorate, on the site of the ancient centre of the region, called Shedet in pharaonic times and Crocodilopolis, later Arsinoe, in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Its ruins to the northwest of the city date to at least the 12th dynasty (1938–1756 bc), and during excavations numerous Demotic, Greek, and Coptic papyrus fragments were found. In medieval times there was a flourishing town on the site, and one mosque dates to the Mamlūk period. The Yūsuf Canal flows through the town; a large waterwheel system with buckets, the only known example in Egypt, raises water to irrigation channels.
Al-Fayyūm is a market and distribution centre for the governorate. It is linked by rail to Banī Suwayf in the Nile valley, and to Cairo by a highway that runs northward across the desert. Narrow-gauge railways radiate from the town to serve the agricultural communities of the governorate, and the Yūsuf Canal also fans out into a series of irrigation channels. Pop. (1996) 260,964.
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