Athena Review Image Archive ™
Town buildings in Karanis
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Buildings in Karanis made of mud brick (photo: 1923)
This 1923 photo shows remains of a number of mud brick buildings grouped in the center of Karanis, a large Graeco-Roman town in the Fayum region. The town was founded in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus II and settled by Greek colonists. Most buildings date from the 1st-3rd centuries AD. Earlier archaeological remains include the South Temple from the 1st century BC, with a Roman-style temple built over it in the 1st century AD dedicated to the local crocodile gods, Pnepheros and Petesouchos.
Local economic problems due to both agricultural stagnation and administrative shortcomings occurred during the 3rd century AD, and the town was finally abandoned by the early 5th century. Numerous papyri dating from the late 3rd and 4th centuries, mainly tax records, document worsening conditions for local farmers in that period.
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