Wadjit

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Wadjit ( Schlangengau ) was the tenth Upper Egyptian Gau in the division of ancient Egypt . The name of the district has been attested since the Old Kingdom . The main town was at least since the Middle Kingdom Tjebu , modern on the east bank of the Nile located Qaw el-Kebir . Here was Nemti revered. The Greeks named the city Antaiopolis after this god and based on it the Gau Antaiopolites. The princes of the district were buried in the Old Kingdom at Hemamieh and in the Middle Kingdom at Qaw el-Kebir.

On the west bank, Per-Wadjit was an important city where the goddess Wadjet was worshiped. This city, called Aphroditopolis by the Greeks, appears in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. To have gained in importance, after which the whole Gau Aphroditopolites was called. In Roman times the city of Apollonospolis mikra Heptakomia gained in importance and the Gau was renamed Appolonopolites, although the name Antaiopolites also appears again and it is not entirely clear whether the Gau was divided. Other places in the Wadjit Gau were Magab and Minet .

literature

  • Wolfgang Helck : The ancient Egyptian districts. In: Supplements Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orient. (TAVO) , Series B (Humanities), No. 5, Wiesbaden 1974, pp. 95-99