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‘Anthro… What?’ from the Road to Fayoum

*Updated with the answer. Congratulations to Giulia Cimarosti of Travel Reportage and Kathlyn Clore for figuring it out.*

Was booting down the road to Fayoum, Egypt today (love that I can say that) and I saw these structures.  I was curious as to what these were, as their architecture wasn’t quite like anything I’d seen from the Egyptian homes. So we hopped out of the landrover and a closer look.

 

 

So do you know what these are, if not homes?  Any guesses?  We will post hints on facebook, twitter and google+, until someone guesses their actual purpose.

 

Your first hint?  These structures go on for miles and miles.

 

The Answer:

So what are these communities of seemingly empty structures, sitting in the desert like a ghost town?  Well, the term ‘ghost town’ is quite fitting for them, as this is Fayoum’s City of the Dead.  In essence it is a great big cemetery of family plots, set up in a dense grid of tomb and mausoleum structures. Our guide was unsure if people of Muslim, Christian or Jewish decent were buried here, or if the cementery was multi-denominational, although we suspect it was.

 

PS. In Full Disclosure: As always, the opinions and thoughts shared here are our own and honest ones. We are bought out by no one. In the spirit of disclosure, it should be noted that on this trip, our expenses were paid by Egyptian Tourism, as a guest to the country and the UNWTO Media and Tourism Conference.

 

April 22, 2012 By Erica Hargreave 5 Comments

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Contests, Egypt, Erica Hargreave, History, Middle East, Nerding Out, Our Travelers, Specialty Tagged With: Egypt, Fayoum

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Giulia

    April 23, 2012 at 8:52 am

    I say definitely tombs! And maybe also inhabited.

    Reply
  2. Kurt

    April 24, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    Crazy facades? Hmm pretty curious if that is all they are.

    Reply
  3. Emiel

    April 26, 2012 at 1:20 am

    It looks great, what about a filmset? I encountered that in Morocco where in the middle of the desert complete film sets are being build. Just a wild guess.. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Kathlyn

    April 26, 2012 at 1:26 am

    Agree with Giulia; definently tombs/grave sites. Nice ones for sure!

    Reply
  5. Erica

    June 17, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    Meant to update this post sooner, but got overly exhausted in my travels. Kathlyn and Giulia are quite correct. They are tombs and family plots. This is in fact, the Fayoum City of the Dead.

    Reply

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