Ihnasya

Ihnasya is a historical city in the Beni Suef Governorate of Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile close to the Bahr Yussef canal. Also known as Heracleopolis, it served as the capital of the Heracleopolite nome in Ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman periods, and its importance persisted after the Muslim conquest of Egypt, when it became the capital of kurah al-Ihnasiyya. The city dates back to the mid First Dynasty around 2970 BC, as indicated by King Den's visit to the sacred lake of Heryshaf. Today it is the center of a markaz with a total population of 295,919 people. The modern Arabic name is a nisba of the earlier name Ihnas, from the Coptic Ehnas, ultimately derived from the Ancient Egyptian Henennesut, temple of the child of the king.