Fayoum Oasis in Two Days

After breakfast, set off for Fayoum, a green and fertile region rich in natural beauty and archaeological sites, still little known to international travellers. Its marshes — fed by the Bahr Yussef canal and by the great lake Moeris, today Lake Qarun — were drained by the pharaohs of the 12th dynasty and turned into royal hunting and fishing grounds.

Drive into the sands of Wadi El Hitan to the UNESCO-listed palaeontological site at the heart of an ancient valley. Its hundreds of fossils of early whales document one of evolution’s great transitions, from land animal to ocean mammal; the fossils of sharks, crocodiles, sawfish, turtles and rays found here show that around 40 million years ago this desert lay beneath the sea.

Picnic lunch on the shore of the lower lake. In the afternoon the track to Wadi El Rayan opens onto sweeping views of desert ridges and great sand dunes.

At the end of the day, visit the village of Tunis on the southern shore of Lake Qarun. In the late 1960s the Swiss potter Evelyne Porret settled here, opening her studio and a school to teach the craft to local people; today Fayoum pottery is among the most sought-after in Egypt, and a stroll along the village’s “pottery street” is a delight.

Overnight in Fayoum.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch · dinner at the hotel.

A full day exploring the north of the oasis. Follow the northern shore of Lake Qarun, admired from above, then enter the surrounding desert plateau, rich in ever-changing rock formations. Reach the unexpected Graeco-Roman town of Soknopaiou Nesos, today Dimeh el-Siba: founded in the 3rd century BC on what was once an island, it still preserves its massive mud-brick walls and the aura of its temple to Sobek, the crocodile god.

Further north the landscape changes again at Qasr el-Sagha, a Middle Kingdom temple whose seven unfinished inner chapels keep its original purpose a mystery. Nearby lies a petrified forest: millions of years ago this arid land was a lush tropical jungle, and today the ground is scattered with tree trunks turned to stone. Return to Cairo; overnight in Cairo.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch · dinner at the hotel.