Editing Akhmim (section)

== History ==
[[File:Akhmim3.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of [[Meritamen]], a daughter of [[Ramesses II]], in the temple of Min]]
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Akhmim was known in [[Ancient Egypt]] as '''Ipu''', '''Apu''' (according to [[Heinrich Brugsch|Brugsch]] the name is related to the nearby village of Kafr Abou)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brugsch |first1=Heinrich |title=Dictionnaire géographique de l'ancienne Egypte: contenant par ordre alphabétique la nomenclature comparée des noms propres géographiques qui se rencontrent sur les monuments et dans les papyrus. |date=1879 |publisher=J. C. Heinrichs |page=575 |url=https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/brugsch1879/0595/image}}</ref> or '''Khent-min'''. It was the capital of the ninth (Chemmite) [[nome (Egypt)|nome]] of [[Upper Egypt]].

The city is a suggested hometown for [[Yuya]], the official of [[Tuthmosis IV]] and [[Amenhotep III]].

The ithyphallic [[Min (god)|Min]] (whom the Greeks identified with [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]]) was worshipped here as "the strong [[Horus]]." [[Herodotus]] mentions the temple dedicated to [[Perseus]] and asserts that Chemmis was remarkable for being the hero’s birthplace, wherein celebrations and games were held in his honour after the manner of the Greeks; at which prizes were given. As a matter of fact, some representations are known of [[Nubia]]ns and people of [[Land of Punt|Punt]] (southern coastal [[Sudan]] and the [[Eritrea]]n coast) climbing up poles before the god Min.

Min was especially a god of the desert routes on the east of [[Egypt]], and the trading tribes are likely to have gathered to his festivals for business and pleasure at [[Coptos]] (which was really near [[Caene|Neapolis]]) even more than at Akhmim. Herodotus perhaps confused [[Coptos]] with Chemmis. [[Strabo]] mentions linen-weaving and stone-cutting as ancient industries of Panopolis, and it is not altogether a coincidence that the cemetery of Akhmim is one of the chief sources of the beautiful textiles of [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] and [[Christian era|Christian]] age, that are brought from [[Egypt]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Akhmim|volume=1|page=456|first=Francis Llewellyn |last=Griffith |author-link=Francis Llewellyn Griffith}}</ref>
[[File:AkhmimSeifeinOldInside.jpg|thumb|Church of Abu Seifein|left]]
In the [[Christian era|Christian]] [[Copt]]ic era, Akhmim was written in Sahidic {{langx|cop|{{Script/Coptic|ϣⲙⲓⲛ/ⲭⲙⲓⲛ/ⲭⲙⲓⲙ}}}} ''{{Transliteration|cop|Shmin/Kmin/Kmim}}'' but was probably pronounced locally something like '''Khmin''' or '''Khmim'''. [[Monastery|Monasteries]] abounded in this region from a very early date.

[[Pachomius the Great]] founded a [[Pachomian monasteries|monastery]] known as '''Tkahshmin''' in the area.<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book |last=Brooks Hedstrom |first=Darlene L. |title=The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2017-11-23 |isbn=978-1-316-67665-3 |doi=10.1017/9781316676653.007}}</ref> [[Shenouda the Archimandrite]] (348–466) was a [[monk]] at [[Athribis (Upper Egypt)|Athribis]] near Akhmim. Some years earlier [[Nestorius]], the exiled ex-patriarch of [[Constantinople]], had died at an old age in the neighborhood of Akhmim. [[Nonnus]], the Greek [[poet]], was born at Panopolis at the end of the 4th century.<ref name="EB1911"/> The bishopric of Panopolis, a [[suffragan]] of [[Antinoë]] in [[Thebaid|Thebais Prima]], is included in the [[Catholic Church]]'s list of [[titular see]]s.<ref>''Ánnuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 949</ref> Among the bishops of Panopolis, [[Le Quien]] mentions <ref>''Oriens christianus'', II, 601–4</ref> Arius, friend of [[Saint Pachomius]] who had built three convents in the city, Sabinus, and Menas. Excavations at Akhmim have disclosed numerous [[Christianity|Christian]] manuscripts, among them fragments of the ''[[Book of Henoch]]'', of the Gospel, and of the ''[[Apocalypse of Peter]]'', the ''[[Council of Ephesus|Acts of the Council of Ephesus]]'', as well as numerous other [[Christianity|Christian]] inscriptions.

In the 13th century AD, a very imposing temple still stood in Akhmim.<ref name="EB1911"/> Today, little of its past glory remains. Nothing is left of the town, the temples were almost completely dismantled, and their material reused in the later [[Middle Ages]]. The extensive cemeteries of ancient Akhmim are yet to be fully explored. The destroyed corner of a Greco-Roman period temple with colossal statues of [[Ramesses II]] and [[Meritamen]] was discovered in 1981.

Of Akhmim, in 1818 [[Jacques Collin de Plancy]] wrote in his book, the ''[[Dictionnaire Infernal]]'', that the city "formerly had the reputation of being the abode of the greatest magicians.  Paul Lucas speaks, in his second voyage, of the marvelous serpent of Akhmin, which Muslims honor as an angel, and which Christians believe to be the demon Asmodeus."<ref>{{cite book |last=de Plancy |first=Jacques Collin |date=1818 |title=Dictionnaire Infernal |trans-title=The Infernal Dictionary|language=French|page=13}}</ref>