Faiyum or Al-Fayoum, also known as Crocodilopolis, Arsinoe, is a city in Middle Egypt. In the Pharaonic era, the city now called Medinet el Fayum was called Shedet. In consequence, the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis, "Crocodile City", from the particular reverence paid by its inhabitants to crocodiles. Under the Ptolemies, the city was for a while called Ptolemais Euergetis and then Arsinoe. Under the Roman Empire it was called Arsinoe in Arcadia.