If you take the pyramids road out of Cairo and drive south west for about an hour you come to the Fayoum, which is an oasis with lake.In the first century it was populated by gnostic groups like the Essenes.Now its populated by fishermen and those wanting to live an alternative lifestyle.Then,as now,its a very still and tranquil place.
A friend drove me down this road in an antique cream open roof Silver Cloud Rolls Royce.Cars dont rust in the desert climate so they seem to have eternal life!As we went he gave out money to the children in the villages.He had friends living there who had built their houses according to the Egyptian architect,Hassan Fathy (see "architecture for the poor").I met Fathy in a room full of shadows,just weeks before he died.He was pouring over his drawings but not coherent.
Fathy is an Irish surname too..but then Egyptian Copts are taught that Irish monks and Egyptian monks had strong links,travelling by sea.These new age houses in the Fayoum have trees growing inside them like an oasis within an oasis.
Some of the most beautiful portraits ever painted were found here. They were never intended to be seen because they were executed in wax encaustic on the underlid of coffins.They were portraits of the dead as living.You can see the influence of these portraits on one of the earliest icons of Jesus,now housed in St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai desert.It too is stunning.
Sinai icon 7thCentury
New age houses in Fayhoum
