Qasr Qarun is situated near the village of Qarun on the western edge of the Faiyum depression at the south-western edge of Birket Qarun. In ancient times the town was known as Dionysias and was the beginning of the caravan route to Bahriya Oasis. Dionysias was founded in the 3rd century BC. Qasr Qarun is a temple dedicated to the Fayoumi god Sobek, built during Ptolemaic times. It appears immediately as strangely simple and square from the outside, since it is like a complete rectangular box with slightly tilted walls - stair cases, all ending on the roof. And this is part of the attraction, since only few of Egypt's temples have roofs and only few of these have access allowed, there is not much to see inside the temple, since all decorations are gone, all but the ones above the doors. But for early European travellers, Qasr Qarun was a destination. There was for long a theory that the maze of the temple, as well as the city near it, was the famous ancient Labyrinth described by Herodotus, The foundations and sometimes even walls of many houses peek through the sand.
IWNTA - SIGHTSEEING - Visits near Cairo - Qasr Qarun
