ABSTRACT
The mummy portraits are often called ‘Fayum portraits’ because so many of them were found in the cemeteries of the Fayum district of Egypt. Portraits have turned up, however, in many other parts of Egypt, ranging from Upper Egypt to the Mediterranean coast west of Alexandria. The Fayum is a low-lying area, watered by the Nile through a long branch canal, the Bahr Yussuf, which runs parallel and to the west of the main river channel for a long way before reaching the entrance to the Fayum basin. The fields of the Fayum are in turn drained by channels that bring what remains of the water into the Birket el Qarun, called Lake Moeris, or just ‘the lake’, in antiquity. Over time, the Fayum acquired a greatly enlarged zone of cultivation and became one of the richest agricultural areas of Egypt, with particularly high concentrations of gardens, orchards and vineyards.
