The Last Sakieh in Fayoum
2017
Directed by Raymond Collet
Collection From Africa to India
In Egypt, canals built in the Pharaonic era still channel the waters of the Nile towards the agricultural land, where ingenious machines would raise the water so that it might irrigate even the smallest field. But most of these old devices have now disappeared from the Egyptian countryside: among them, the sakieh. The last of these was found in the oasis of Fayoum, south of Cairo. It has recently been exhibited in Marseille, in the Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean. Its former owner tells us its story.