Nazla Village Fayoum Handicrafts and Local Culture

About The Village Name acquisition:It was called before “Nazlat Shoketi” who was the first dweller into the village space, but lately it had been abbreviated to “Nazla” referring to the natural geological depressions in the earth crust up on which the village crouches, which is typically translated into Arabic “Nazla”. Location: 30 Km north west of Fayoum city (20 Minutes) .

Nazla Village Fayoum

It is the ancient village of 7 great Villages of Yousif el-Sedeq District (situated in the south east of the district), it locates among four villages (Tabhar village from the east – Shawashna village in the north – el-Hamoly village in the south – Shawashna & Rayan in the west). It has a strategic location among 3 districts (Etsa – Ebshway – Yousef el-sedeq). one of four large villages (Al-Shawashna – Kahk – Moshrk) who refused and still resist to be included under the new district spotted in the far west desert of Fayoum Governorate (Yousef al-Sedeq “Ghost city”) remote 30 Km away from their feet, created in the 1990th for the common good of Yousef Walli named after his name (The Former Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture), declaring political corruption at that time to reformulate a new popular base of voters to consolidate him in elections, the new born district poor in services and it was better to be settled in-mid of Al-shawashna Village .

Fayoum Handicrafts and Local Culture

Fayoum offers visitors a glimpse into traditional Egyptian rural life style with rich and complex ethnic cultural groups containing farmers, Bedouins, and fishermen living together in the same region. The tour programs can combine the experience of local lifestyles and its related types of products and activities such as poetry, basketry, traditional storytelling, falconry exhibitions, and traditional fishing. Many villages in Fayoum have outstanding traditional handicrafts expressive of the history and traditions of local people in Fayoum. The abundance of palm trees and clay found in Fayoum are the reasons how the basketry industry began here. Travelers will visit local villages such as Nazla, and Tunis the master craft centers of pots and open heritage museums that explains the culture, traditions, and many uses of pottery.

Intensive field investigations have been carried out with the craft producers in Shakshok, Tunis, Kahek, El-Nazlah, Fedimin, El-Agamyin, El-Nassariyah and ElA'lam. Also, many vendors in various locations in the road of Lake Qarun, Fayoum city and in Ein-Elsellin were investigated during the field visits.

Pottery

Pottery has a long history in the Fayoum since the pharaonic times. Abu Ballas, Father of Pots, was an important center of pottery history in the Fayoum. Located on the caravan trail that linked Wadi El Rayan and points south with Wadi Natrun and points north, Abu Ballas was a major station where caravans stopped to rest. The pots scattered around this area date from the Roman era and consist mainly of smashed amphorae. The pottery encountered there can be dated back to the Roman times. Pottery art continued in the Fayoum history and now is reinterpreted in two great pots centers, El Nazla and Tunis.

Potters of Nazla use a very particular technique to make a spherical pot based on a combination of wheel-thrown and hammer-and-anvil. Work is carried out according to very old and traditional methods of producing pottery that have not changed much since Pharaonic times. 

The potters’ village at Nazla itself is built completely out of pots. Inside the 20 workshops, there is a hole, a kind of hemispherical scoop in the ground. Straw and clay are mixed together, sometimes with ash. The material is in the hole, and it is hammered and turned at the same time to make large globes. 

The big pots are allowed to dry a little, and it is only then that the vessels are finished on the wheel. There is no wheel involved, no mechanical process. Only the rims of the large round pots are made on the throwing wheel. 

These vessels are not a result of mechanical turning but of the turning of the body, the rhythm of the body and the hole in the ground. The pots of Nazla are archetypes, and are therefore living history. Here the history is walking alongside the vessel, on a different but parallel path. At present, the pots from El-Nazlaa are sold in Cairo at the pottery centers like that of Fustat.

Experience Egypt’s paradise for pottery lovers, Al Nazla Village in Fayoum! Contact Us