Description : Soknopaiou Nesos (Ancient Greek: Σοκνοπαίου Νῆσος) was an ancient settlement in the Faiyum Oasis (Egypt), located a few kilometers north of Lake Qarun (known in antiquity as Lake Moeris).The settlement - known nowadays as Dimeh es-Seba (Arabic: ديمة السباع), possibly meaning «Dimeh of the lions» - was an important religious center with an imposing temple dedicated to the god Soknopaios, an oracular god in shape of a crocodile with falcon head, from which the toponym of the town itself derived.According to papyrological evidence Soknopaiou Nesos was founded in the 3rd century BCE, during the land reclamation project of the Faiyum carried out by the first Ptolemies, and was abandoned in mid 3rd century CE. The archaeological evidence instead, releases new data about a late reoccupation of the site, concentrated especially inside the area of the main temple of the town, during the 4th-5th centuries until the end of the Byzantine period.
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