Fayoum Pottery Festival - Izbet Tunis (Tunis Village)

In December, a group of us hired a microbus and went for a day visit to the Fayoum Pottery Festival.
I have been to the Fayoum before, but nothing prepared me for the village of Izbet Tunis, it's so beautiful!

It is about 140km out of Cairo and is on the southern edge of Lake Qarun.

There are many pottery makers based in the town and for the 3 days of the festival, they were holding 'open house' displaying their wares.

Here's a video I put together of some of my photographs of the day:



There are some places to stay.  I didn't stay overnight, but Doris Frei has a little place called "The Little Swiss Oasis" where she has a 1 double guest room available - currently 350LE per night for 2 persons, breakfast is 45LE per person.  If you just want to say hello, she has a small, pretty cafe area for teas, coffees and cakes.  If there are a few of you visiting, she can arrange additional accommodation in the village. Update 14/3/2014: Doris' website has been unavailable for sometime now (many months) so it may be that she no longer runs the B&B or indeed is no longer there. 

If you wanted to spend a few days in the area, you can also visit Wadi Rayan waterfalls, Wadi Hitan (where there are prehistoric whalebones in the desert) and Greek and Roman ruins.

Here's a link to my post about my trip to Wadi Rayan back in 2009.

http://oldbagofcairo.blogspot.com/2009/07/trip-to-wadi-rayan.html

And here are some links to further information about the area:

Links: (Links checked and replaced where necessary Feb 2012)

TourEgypt article about Greek and Roman ruins

Further info about Lake Qarun

photos of the area from 1999

PDF 5.3MB DOWNLOAD Official guide to Wadi Rayan and Fayoum Area

(The original link to this guide is defunct so I found a copy on my computer and have uploaded it here. If anyone in officialdom would like to contact me if this is not ok, please let me know.)

Helnan Auberge Hotel at Lake Qarun, Fayoum