Kom Ushim (sometimes called Kom Aushim) is the first village to be reached when travelling the desert road from Cairo, south-east towards the Faiyum and the centre for visiting several sites of interest. It is situated to the north-east of Birket Qarun. Kom Ushim boasts a small museum, almost hidden in its own gardens, which has been recently renovated and includes artefacts found in the Faiyum which date from the prehistoric to Roman periods. There are some good Middle Kingdom models from Hawara, the colossal head of a Roman god from Karanis and many items of pottery and coins found in the Faiyum. The museum is temperature controlled and very well-lit. Unfortunately, due to engineering problems, the museum at Kom Ushim is currently closed (March 2008) and may not re-open for some time, but the monument site remains accessible.

The museum also exhibits two of the famous 'Faiyum Portraits' (others can be seen in Cairo Museum). These were personal portraits painted on wood or linen which covered the face of the mummy towards the end of the Graeco-Roman times. During this time the Egyptians still had a great belief in resurrection after death, and the features of the deceased were painted to allow the spirits to recognise the body. The portraits were sometimes painted in encaustic powdered pigments mixed with beeswax and applied with brush or scalpel while others used tempera or water-based paints. The faces are always serious and have very large dark and staring eyes. They are often portrayed in the prime of life, or youthful and always wearing their finest clothes and jewellery. The portraits, which greatly influenced Coptic art in Egypt, provide a link between the art of the ancient Egyptians and later portraiture during the Middle Ages. While there have been mummy-portraits found in other areas of Egypt, the best collection came from the Faiyum areas of ancient Philadelphia, Karanis and Hawara.

Kom Ushim is best known as ancient 'Karanis', the largest of the Graeco-Roman town sites in the Faiyum. The town was occupied for a total period of around seven centuries and saw many changes after the end of dynastic rule in Egypt. The site can be entered from the grounds of the museum.

Although Petrie had examined the site earlier, the first real excavations at Karanis began in 1925 and were undertaken by the University of Michigan, who were the first to realise the potential for the investigation and study of Graeco-Roman sites in Egypt. The town has since provided a very valuable source of information on everyday life, religious cults, administration and industries during this period. There have also been numerous papyri and documents found - excellently preserved due to Egypt's dry climate - which have the special significance of being able to be read in context with the architecture and artefacts of the town remains. The Michigan team found five datable levels of stratigraphy during their excavations over the three main areas they covered. The site has since been excavated by Cairo University and more recently by the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology.

The archaeological site of Karanis is situated on a huge mound which rises 12m above the surrounding plain. The town was founded by Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC, primarily as a garrison for his troops, but prospered and grew, probably because of its accessibility from more populated cities to the north. At the time of building the town would have been on the shores of Lake Qarun. The houses are arranged in clusters around the two main thoroughfares which run from north to south and range in style from simple mudbrick dwellings to the more elaborate villas of the high-status officials. Remains of millstones and olive presses still lie on the ground and there were also six dovecotes found in the ruins, similar to those seen in the Faiyum today. Although many occupations and industries are represented in the town, it would appear that the majority were farmers who worked on the fertile agricultural land of the surrounding area. Ten large granaries and seven smaller ones have been uncovered at Karanis.

The town was built around two temples of the Ptolemaic Period and much of the information from excavations at Karanis reflects the religious preoccupations of its inhabitants - 27 different Egyptian, Greek or Roman deities are recorded there. The southern temple was built in the latter part of the 1st century AD, on the site of an earlier structure and is the largest of the two. It was dedicated to the crocodile-god (Sobek, or Suchos) who was worshipped here as Pnepheros and Petesuchos. The southern temple is built of limestone and though undecorated it follows the conventional Egyptian plan of a quay at the head of a processional way, leading through a paved colonnaded courtyard to the temple. The main entrance gate (usurped by Claudius) bears an inscription of Nero who is said to have originally dedicated the temple. A gate of Vespasian lies to the east, beyond a small sacred lake. The structure contains three chambers, the largest room gave access to a vestibule from which the sanctuary was entered and from the roof there is a good view of the town of Karanis and the fertile land to the south. Deep niches in the walls of the vestibule were used to contain the mummies of the sacred crocodiles which would have been incorporated into the temple rituals. Many mummified crocodiles have been found buried at Karanis. In the sanctuary itself a large altar reveals a low hidden chamber beneath which was probably used by the priests to deliver oracles.

The northern temple, constructed on an earlier site, also dates to the end of the 1st century AD, but has no inscriptions at all. This grey limestone structure faces north, is smaller than the southern temple and was once surrounded by a mudbrick temenos wall which is now mostly destroyed. There are two small entrance pylons and the outer corners of the temple are decorated with four slender columns. A large stone altar, also with an oracle niche, dominates the sanctuary.

In addition to the cult of the crocodile-god, Karanis is known to have had devotees of the divine triad of Isis, Serapis, and Harpocrates, as well as numerous other 'domestic gods', both Egyptian and Greek.

Although now mostly ruined, Karanis occupies a unique place in the Graeco-Roman monuments of Egypt. Investigation of the site over the past century has enormously enhanced understanding of the everyday lives of its inhabitants under Greek and Roman rule.

Karanis can be found near the entrance to the Faiyum from the Cairo desert road, or about 56km to the north-east of Medinet el-Faiyum, on a huge mound at the edge of the desert. The museum is open daily from 9.00am to 4.00pm.

A little to the south-east of Karanis, on the northern edge of the Faiyum, is the ancient town of Bacchias, now called Kom el-Atl (locally pronounced Kom el-'Asl) which means 'The Place of the Tamarisk'. The site is situated near the small village of Gharay. Once a border town on the desert road from Memphis to the Arsinoite nome, this small community was founded in the Ptolemaic Period. The site lies on an earlier prehistoric settlement.

The town site, which was probably founded in the 3rd century BC and abandoned around the 4th century AD, is now in a ruinous condition, but there are many remains of mudbrick houses still standing. There are also remains of a huge well-constructed mudbrick structure, once thought to have been the town's temple. Many papyri were found here in the archive of Horos and Tapekysis.

The site was first visited by Flinders Petrie in the 1890s and was later excavated by Grenfell and Hogarth in 1896, who found three pottery jars filled with coins in the ruins as well as papyri and other artefacts. Some of the Faiyum Portraits were also found here, but the majority of the site has never been thoroughly excavated. In the 1990s part of the town was re-excavated by Egyptians and an Italian team from the Universities of Bologna and Lecce who have unearthed more of the ancient buildings and streets.

Since 1993 the excavators have uncovered foundations of a stone temple structure beneath the mudbrick buildings, thought to have been dedicated to Soknobkonneus, a form of Sobek. The plan of this building seems complex, with part of it on an axis to the main structure and pylon remains to the north. It was originally thought that the huge solid mudbrick structure was the temple, but this is now believed to have represented store-rooms which were attached to the stone temple. Recent finds also include a small limestone sphinx with a demotic inscription, fragments of Greek and Roman papyri, many coins of the period as well as various statue fragments. They have also uncovered foundations of a large well-built structure of some importance with remains of inlaid wooden furniture and pottery lamps. The whole site, which stretches over many smaller mounds, is strewn with pottery sherds and takes quite a long time to walk around. A large wolf greeted us from one of the mounds and accompanied us around the site, moving further away each time we got close to it! The team are continuing a topographic survey of the site and to work on restoring the Temple of Soknobkonneus.

Kom el-Atl is on the north-eastern edge of the Faiyum basin, not far from Karanis. From the Kom Ushim museum take the road to the bottom of the hill and turn onto a narrow track which follows a canal on the right and runs alongside the town site of Karanis on the left. After around 10km, turn left over a bridge towards the village of Kom el-Atl, after which you will see the town mound and ruins in the desert beyond. There is a gafir's hut at the site.

The road from Kom Ushim, south to Medinet el-Faiyum goes through the village of Biyahmu. Here Petrie discovered two large limestone pedestals, over 6m high, which once contained seated colossal statues of Amenemhet III. The statues are now gone, but the pedestals remain in situ by a railway embankment. By the size of the pedestals it is suggested that the statues would have exceeded 18m in height.