Antinoöpolis

Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; Ἀντινόουπόλις; Antinow; انصنا, modern الشيخ عبادة, modern Sheikh 'Ibada or Sheik Abāda) was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman emperor Hadrian to commemorate his deified young beloved, Antinoüs, on the east bank of the Nile, not far from the site in Upper Egypt where Antinoüs drowned in 130 AD. Antinoöpolis was a little to the south of the Egyptian village of Besa (Βῆσσα), named after the god and oracle of Bes. Antinoöpolis was built at the foot of the hill upon which Besa was seated. The city is located nearly opposite of Hermopolis Magna and was connected to Berenice Troglodytica by the Via Hadriana.

During the New Kingdom, the city, Hir we, was the location of Ramesses II's great temple, dedicated to the gods of Khmun and Heliopolis.

During the Roman Empire, the city of Antinoöpolis was erected in AD 130 by the emperor Hadrian on the site of Hir we as the cult centre of the deified Antinoüs. All previous buildings, including a necropolis, were razed and replaced, with the exception of the Temple of Ramses II.

The city was abandoned around the 10th century. It continued to host a massive Graeco Roman temple until the 19th century, when it was destroyed to feed a cement works. Over the centuries, stone from the Hadrianic city was removed for the construction of homes and mosques. No longer a Latin residential bishopric, Antinoë is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

The earliest finds at the site date to the New Kingdom, when Bes and Hathor were important deities. One at least of them, which ran from north to south, had on either side of it a corridor supported by columns for the convenience of foot passengers. The walls of the theatre near the southern gate, and those of the hippodrome without the walls to the east, are still extant. At the north western extremity of the city was a portico, of which four columns remain, inscribed to Good Fortune, and bearing the date of the 14th and last year of the reign of Alexander Severus, 235 AD. As far as can be ascertained from the space covered with mounds of masonry, Antinoöpolis was about a mile and a half in length, and nearly half a mile broad. The remains of the city, having a three and a half mile circumference, suggests Roman and Hellenistic foundations and was surrounded by a brick wall on three sides, leaving the fourth side open to the Nile. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Napoleonic surveys were made, a theatre, many temples, a triumphal arch, two streets with double colonnades (illustrated in Description de l'Egypte), a circus, and a hippodrome nearby, were still to be seen.

Albert Gayet (1856–1916) was known as the "archaeologist of Antinoöpolis" and, without his extensive research and documentation of the site, very little would be known about this Greco Roman city. Though there is much data of Antinoöpolis recorded from the Napoleonic Commission, Gayet's report sheds a greater light on the ancient city. As Christianity began to spread through the Roman Empire, Antinoöpolis became a place of worship. Centuries after the city of Antinoüs was established by the Roman emperor, Christianity became the way of life. The city was home to many nuns and monks and Christian sanctuaries were built. Many came to venerate saints, such as Claudius and Colluthus, and monasteries were abundant. Gayet's findings confirm the wide spread of Christianity. Gayet's excavations have revealed mummies, grave goods, and thousands of fabrics at the site of Antinoöpolis. Gayet uncovered a large cemetery, the burial place of numerous Coptic Christians. Mummification was prohibited by law in the fourth century A. D., and so the remains of deceased Christians were dressed in tunics and swaddled with other textiles before being buried. Gayet's findings give researchers a better understanding of early Christian burial practices and his preservation of artistic textiles found at the site show the evolving Coptic style. The transformation of style was the canonical art of ancient Egypt infused with Classical and then Christian art.

Today, Antinoöpolis is the site of El Sheikh Ibada, a small village. Many of the original buildings have been broken down for materials to build newer structures, such as sugar factories for El Rodah, but visitors can still see the remains of the Roman Circus and ruins of a few temples. Mummy with valedictory inscription and attached funerary portrait, probably from Antinoöpolis. Hadrianic period. Louvre inv. No. AF 6882.]]