El Ashmunein

El Ashmunein Latest News

Archaeologists working in El Ashmunein recently uncovered a massive limestone fragment that completes a royal statue first discovered nearly a century ago, revealing new details about Ramesses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BCE.

About El Ashmunein

• Hermopolis Magna, present-day el-Ashmunein, is an ancient town of Upper Egypt, located on the west bank of the Nile River.
• It has religious, cultural, and administrative importance from the Old Kingdom to the Greco-Roman era.
• The city was devoted to Thoth, the ibis-headed god associated with wisdom and writing.
• The ancient Egyptian name for the town was Khmun (‘City of the Eight‘), a reference to the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, a collective of eight “primordial” deities whose worship was centered there.
• It used to be distinguished as the capital of the Hare nome, the fifteenth nome of Upper Egypt.
• The city featured monumental structures like the Temple of Thoth, decorated with statues, inscriptions, and stelae. 
• In the Christian era, it became an early Coptic center, marked by a 5th-century basilica. 
• Archaeological excavations have unearthed mudbrick houses, cemeteries, altars, and reused royal cartouches from rulers like Akhenaten and Nectanebo II, illustrating the city’s rich multi-era legacy.
• Nearby there are also extensive underground galleries, constructed mainly between the Late Period and Roman times.

Source: IDR

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