DIONYSIAS
(Qasr Qarûn) Egypt.
About 42
km NW of Medinet El-Faiyûm. Originally on the SW
shore of Lake Moeris (now Qarûn), it is now in the
desert since the lake has receded ca. 4 km NW. Because
of a Roman fortress here, the site has been identified
with the Dionysias noted by Ptolemy the Geographer
(A.D. 90-168). It is the Dionisiada of the
Notitia Dignitatum, which enumerates the Roman garrisons at the
time of Valentinian III (A.D. 425-55). Dionysias is also
well known through the Archive of Flavius Abbinaeus
of the 4th c.
During the late Ptolemaic period a temple, still extant,
was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god of the Arsinoite nome. Another temple, dedicated to a certain war
god, was near a public bath. Excavations have yielded
a number of objects related to the side activities of the
military community of the garrison. Most interesting is
a collection of 15,000 molds datable to A.D. 315 and
probably used in the forgery of coins. Of interest also
are the 4th c. Christian symbols influenced by pagan
frescos.
The site is scattered with broken glass, potsherds, terracotta fragments, bricks, and blocks of stone. The fortress
(94 x 81 m), datable to the reign of Diocletian, occupies the NW part of the area. It was built of burnt
bricks. At each of the four corners stands a tower (8.2 x
9.5 m) and the wall is further fortified by five smaller
towers. The thickness of the walls is 4.1 m. The only
access to the interior of the fortress was through a stone
entrance built into the N wall and closed by a wooden
door. The central part, of basilican form, leads from the
door to a raised platform reached by a stone stair. Near
the end stood a statue of Tyche. To the W of the fortress
is the Roman temple built of bricks and decorated inside
with engaged columns. Its sanctuary has the form of an
apse with a vaulted roof. A funerary chapel 40 m to the
W was apparently surrounded with columns. The earliest
building in the area, a late Ptolemaic temple (28 x 19
m) occupies the E quarter of the site. The sanctuary,
which is divided into three small chapels, is approached
through a court and a corridor flanked on both sides by
14 rooms. There is also an upper floor with many rooms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Schwartz & H. Wild,
Qasr Qârûn/Dionysias, publications of the Institut français d'Archéologie orientale du Caire (1950) 4, VIII
MPI; Schwartz et al.,
Qa[sdot ]r-Qarūn/Dionysias 1950. Fouilles Franco-Suisses. Rapports II (1969); E. Brunner-Traut & V. Hell,
Aegypten (1966) 490.
S. SHENOUDA
