Karanis

Karanis was founded in the third century BC as one of the settlements planted to farm the newly drained Faiyum under the Ptolemies, and it kept going into the fifth century AD, which makes it a rare chance to walk through an ordinary Egyptian town of the Graeco-Roman centuries rather than a temple or a tomb. Streets of mud-brick houses survive to first-floor height in places, with grain cellars, staircases, ovens and dovecotes still legible. Two limestone temples stand at either end, the northern one well preserved with its sanctuary and a crocodile-god cult. Michigan excavations in the 1920s and 1930s recovered enormous quantities of everyday material and papyri, much of it now in Ann Arbor. A small museum at the gate holds Faiyum finds including portrait panels.

What you actually see

• Streets of mud-brick houses - cellars, stairs and ovens still in place.
• The northern stone temple - a well-preserved sanctuary of the crocodile cult.
• Dovecotes and grain stores - the working fabric of a farming town.
• The site museum - Faiyum finds including mummy portrait panels.

When to go

October to April. Two hours for the town and the museum. Mornings are best for walking the streets before the sun is high. It is directly on the Cairo road, so it works as a first or last stop on a Faiyum trip.

Honest expectations

Mud brick erodes fast and parts of the town have degraded noticeably in recent decades. There is little signage to tell one building from another, and a guide or a plan helps a great deal. No shade at all. The museum is small and often quiet to the point of being unstaffed.

Nearby

Lake Qarun is a few kilometres south-west; Dimeh al-Siba lies across the lake.