Medinet Madi is one of the most important archaeological sites in the area of Fayoum. In the Greco-Roman Period it was known as Narmothis. It is located about 30 km south-west of Fayoum, near Wadi Al-Rayyan Waterfalls, which was founded during the reign of Amenhemhit III and IV during the Twelfth Dynasty. Its modern name means "the city of the past".
It contains the ruins of the only central kingdom, the temple of Medinet Madi, which is one of the most important temples in Fayoum, because of its well preserved condition. It was dedicated to the third Subic (the Alligator God), Rinonute (the goddess of the harvest serpent), and Horace of Chidit.
The temple was originally built in the Twelfth Dynasty by Amenemhat III and IV. It was then restored during the 19th Dynasty. The name of the King of Usurcon of Dynasty 23 is also found on the walls of the temple.
Maidant Maid contains two temples and about a dozen Coptic churches dating back to the Roman era, as many additions were established to the northern and southern sides of the Central Kingdom during the Ptolemaic period.
The Ptolemaic extension of the temple included the avant-garde road to the south with its bosoms and sphinx (both Egyptian and Greek), which passed through a vertical booth leading eventually to the gallery of two ancient columns.
It has been suggested that an unusually good preservation of this temple complex, which was excavated by a team of archaeologists from the University of Milan in the 1930s, may be due only to relative isolation.