Birket Qarun - Dimei

Some 5mi/8km north of Dimei, at the foot of a steep desert escarpment, is the small Temple of Qasr el-Sagha, probably dating from the Old Kingdom, which was discovered by Schweinfurth in 1884. Built of limestone blocks, it contains seven recesses and several other chambers, but no reliefs or inscriptions. Near by are the remains of an ancient quay.

A street 400yd/370m long, formerly flanked by figures of crouching lions, passes the well preserved remains of houses to a platform on which are the ruins of a large temple of the Ptolemaic period dedicated to Soknopaios, a local form of the Fayyum deity Sobek or Suchos, and the "finely throned Isis". The temple, surrounded by a high enclosure wall of sun dried brick, consisted of a number of chambers, the rooms to the rear being built of carefully laid limestone blocks, those in the front part of roughly hewn stone faced with stucco. Only a few reliefs survive; one of them depicts one of the Ptolemies (without cartouche) praying before a ram headed god (probably Amun).