Ahmim
| Achmim in hieroglyphics | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old empire |
Ipu Jpw |
||||
| Greek | Chemmis, Panopolis | ||||
| Coptic | Chemin | ||||
Achmim ( Arabic أخميم Achmīm , DMG Aḫmīm (also Akhmim , Echmim ; Coptic Chemin ; ancient Egyptian Ipu or Chenmet-Min ; Greek Chemmis )) is a city in Upper Egypt on the eastern bank of the Nile (bridge to Sohag , about 200 km north of Luxor , about 190 km above Siut and 114 km northwest of Keneb ) on a rubble hill in the ruins of the ancient city.
Achmim has around 84,800 inhabitants today and was once a center of textile production (as in Strabon 17, 813) with extensive necropolises . Panopolis was the capital of the ninth Upper Egyptian Min-Gaues ("Gau of the good soul"), with the place / Gaugott Min . This ancient Egyptian deity was especially worshiped in Achmim (as lord of Ipu, the strong Horus ) and in Koptos .
Coordinates: 26 ° 34 ' N , 31 ° 45' E
The temples in Achmim were among the largest in Greco-Roman Egypt, their ruins were still considered wonders of the world by Arabic writers in the Middle Ages. Today they have almost completely disappeared. A priest statue of Nepherites I and a granite block with dedicatory inscriptions from Psammuthis , an Upper Egyptian regent of the 29th dynasty, come from Achmim . He was anti-king of Hakor (Achoris). His reign is 393–92 BC. Chr. Indicated. Psammuthis is the Greek translation of the personal name Pascherienmut ("child of the goddess courage").
Known are numerous papyri (documents) from Panopolis, acquired by travelers from Egyptian fellahs and thus preserved as a result of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt of 1798 and the associated reviving trip to Egypt by Europeans. They then ended up in numerous European museums.
In Byzantine times, Panopolis was the capital of the Thebais province of the diocese of Egypt. There are numerous Coptic monasteries in Achmim.
Numerous late antique and early Islamic textile fragments come from the Panopolis burial ground, which the Swiss archaeologist, collector and art dealer Robert Forrer (1866–1947) dug up in 1891 and sold to numerous European museums (including the Moritzburg Foundation in Halle an der Saale ). In addition, various mummy portraits come from the imperial necropolises .
In the middle of the fifth century the city suffered from attacks by the Blemmyes .
Personalities
- The priestess Henti , who bore the titles of head of the cult musicians of Iunmutef , priestess of Hathor and guardian of Min , was buried in the necropolis of El-Diabat near Achmim.
- Juja (priest of Min and head of the horses) and Tuja , parents of Teje , the main wife of Amenophis III.
- Teje, the great royal wife of Amenhotep III. and mother Akhenaten , like her parents Juja and Tuja, also came from Achmim. This fact has led to a theory, the evidence of which is controversial: Eje is taken for the brother of Teje and father of Nefertiti . Since his wife was only the wet nurse of the future queen, one suspects an earlier, deceased wife who has not yet been proven. On Tuja's coffin, Anen (2nd priest of Amun ) is named as the son, but Eje himself is not.
- Pharaoh Eje came from Achmim, and his wife Tij was Nefertiti's wet nurse . In the four years of his reign he consistently continued the renunciation of the Aton cult, built in Abydos , Karnak and Luxor and built a rock chapel for Min in Achmim.
- The ancient Greek alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis (approx. 250 to approx. 310 AD). He wrote 28 books on alchemy ("Chemeutics"), of which only volume 24 and some quotations have survived today. Zosimus improved the distillation and worked on metallurgical tasks and introduced the term chemistry.
- The ancient Greek epic poet Nonnos von Panopolis (5th century) also comes from Panopolis , who wrote the epic Dionysiaka in Alexandria in 48 songs with 21,382 verses.
- Nestorius , the Patriarch of Constantinople, died in Panopolis in exile.
- Danaos was born in Chemmis in Egypt.
literature
- Joachim Karig : Achmim. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 54-55.
- Naguib Kanawati: Akhmim. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 124-128.
- Hans Bonnet : Panopolis . In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History . Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , p. 580 f.
- Karl Jansen-Winkeln : sv Panopolis . In: The New Pauly . Volume 9. Metzler, Stuttgart et al. 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , columns 257-258.
