Akhmim

Akhmim is a city in Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile about 6 kilometres northeast of Sohag. The ancient Greeks called it Khemmis or Chemmis and Panopolis. In ancient Egypt it was known as Ipu, Apu or Khent-min and was the capital of the ninth nome of Upper Egypt, where the god Min, whom the Greeks identified with Pan, was worshipped. Strabo mentions linen weaving and stone cutting as ancient industries of Panopolis, and the cemetery of Akhmim is one of the chief sources of the textiles of the Roman and Christian ages. In the Christian Coptic era monasteries abounded in the region, and Pachomius the Great founded the monastery known as Tkahshmin in the area. The poet Nonnus was born at Panopolis at the end of the fourth century.