YaFandem
Saved and trip planner
All addresses
Carved hieroglyphs, painted in ochre and blue, on the wall of an ancient Egyptian temple.

Fayoum · Southern Fayoum

Medinet Madi

An avenue of sphinxes and lions in the middle of the desert, almost never visited.

€ BudgetOff the beaten track

The only Middle Kingdom temple still standing in Egypt, enlarged in Ptolemaic and Roman times, with its dromos lined by lions. The site sits at the end of a track, guarded, and you are utterly alone there.

The extra bit

Take a Fayoum driver who knows the track: the site is not found by GPS alone.

Know before you go

No services, no shade: water, hat, and a morning visit.

Directions

Medinet Madi, southern Fayoum

Directions

In the same spirit

  • Wadi El Rayan

    A desert depression filled with the Fayoum's drainage water: two lakes and dunes.

    FayoumWadi El Rayan

    €€ Mid-rangeWhere locals go

  • Whale Valley

    Unmissable

    Skeletons of whales with legs, left in the sand exactly where they were uncovered.

    FayoumWadi El Hitan

    €€ Mid-rangeUNESCO

  • Lake Qarun

    A salt lake below sea level, all that is left of the ancients' Lake Moeris.

    FayoumLake Qarun

    € BudgetSunset