A Glimpse into Medinat Madi
Medinat Madi literally translates to “the city of the past.” A record from the 9th century AD identifies “Madi” as the location’s name. The site holds the ruins of a rare temple from the Middle Kingdom. It’s particularly notable because we find so few temples from this period. King Amenemhat III and IV built the temple for the holy family of the deity Sobek, the goddess Renenutet, and their son, Horus Shedet. Buildings you can identify today date from the late Roman and early Islamic eras, down to the ninth century. Furthermore, Ptolemaic dwellings are found near the temple. Throughout history, people built with mud bricks and inexpensive quarry stones. Many walls used horizontal wooden inserts, typically palm wood, for reinforcement.
The Divine City of Medinat Madi
So far, archaeologists haven’t discovered any public structures in Medinat Madi. However, they have found a significant number of churches, and they’ve cleaned some of them. In most cases, they’re simple structures. Nevertheless, we mention them because similar chapels likely existed in many places throughout Egypt in late antiquity, but most have since vanished.
Examples of Churches
A typical example is the small church CH 84 A. People built it entirely with mud bricks. Only the columns and door sills are stone. The ground plan consists of a three-aisled naos without a return aisle, but with the typical three-part sanctuary. A sequence of rooms connects on the outer south side. You can only access the slightly larger east chamber from inside the church. The remaining rooms have entrances on the exterior. Symmetrically in front of this complex on the west side, a smaller entry hall with an antechamber and staircase exists. A court that appears to be later sits further to the west. This church might date back to the sixth century. The columns in it are entirely solid. In terms of style, they are similar to pieces from Ahnas (Herakleopolis Magna) and workshops there might have manufactured them.
More Churches
The church CH 84 B is significantly smaller. The space for the laity is wider than it is long, and it has just four columns inside, which people arranged quite unevenly. People most likely inserted this church into an existing structure. When workers removed it, they uncovered various woodwork fragments. CH 85 C, a third church, resulted from the renovation of a secular Roman structure. This one is also almost square. It contains four interior columns, an apse in the east, and a small narthex in the west. Once again, spolia make up all of the columns. People repurposed this church as a residence in its last phase.
Ongoing Excavations
Other churches are still being excavated. Two of them, CH 87 D and CH 88 H, have five-aisle naos, while one, CH 88 G, has seven-aisle naos. However, none of these churches are exceptionally huge, and their length is considerably less noteworthy. For instance, CH 88 G has four berths and CH 88 H has three. The latter’s apse features a horseshoe-shaped ground plan with an inner circuit of engaged pilasters and two engaged columns at the nave doorway. CH 88 G contains a single example of a narthex in one of these multi-aisled churches.
In the spring of 1987, archaeologists excavated the church CH 87 E. It has multiple entrances on each of its long sides. The sanctuary is three-tiered, as is customary. Columns border the doorways into the central and northern chambers on both sides. The third room to the south has a simpler style, and people most likely used it as a draconian. Further down, in the town’s southernmost section, a rather well-preserved small church stands with a narthex and four interior columns. It contains a multi-room sanctuary with several components arranged around the central altar chamber.
Tours to Medinat Madi
Join one of Egypt Fun Tours’ El Fayoum tours to explore Medinat Madi. A team of expert tour guides and tour managers prepares these tours.
