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Roughly 130 kilometres south-west of Cairo, Faiyum occupies a depression in the Western Desert that has been inhabited for longer than almost anywhere else in Egypt. Fed by a branch of the Nile known as the Bahr Yusuf, the oasis sits below sea level and sustains a landscape of cultivated fields, palm groves, and freshwater lakes that feels startlingly out of place against the surrounding limestone plateaux. The ancient Egyptians called it Ta-She, the Land of the Lake, and the Ptolemaic rulers who followed them were so taken with the place that they drained marshes, expanded irrigation, and turned it into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the ancient world.

The centrepiece of that ancient lake system is Birket Qarun, a saltwater remnant of the far larger Lake Moeris that once covered much of the depression. Migratory birds pass through in considerable numbers, and the lake's northern shore has long attracted Egyptians from Cairo seeking a quieter weekend than the capital allows. The town of Faiyum itself, built around a series of waterwheels that have turned on the Bahr Yusuf for centuries, is a working provincial city rather than a polished tourist destination, which gives it a texture that more visited Egyptian cities have largely lost.