Italian Tourist Records His Road Trip In Faiyum

Italian Tourist Records His Road Trip In Faiyum , Short of tankers gliding between the sandbanks of the Suez Canal, Egypt has no weirder juxtaposition of water and desert than Lake Qaroun (Birket Qaroun), where fishing boats bob against a backdrop of arid hills and the immensity of the Western Desert.

Known to locals as “The Pond” (El-Birka), the lake’s name may derive from the horn (qorn) shaped peak on an island in the middle, but Fayoumis believe that it’s named after a character in the Koran, who was swallowed up by the earth as a punishment for being “exultant in his riches”. The lake is favoured as a bathing resort by the local people and the season runs all year round however swimming is not recommended from January to April due to the cooler climate.