Naqada

Naqada is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, about 20 kilometres north of Luxor, and it includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. Its ancient Egyptian name, Nbyt, means City of Gold, reflecting the gold of the Eastern Desert and the strategic position of Naqada and its facing town of Koptos for the commerce of that gold; its Greek name was Pampanis. According to the 1960 census it had only 3,000 inhabitants, mostly Christians who preserved elements of the Coptic language until the 1930s. The ancient town contained a cemetery of approximately 2,000 graves, first excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1894 for the Egypt Exploration Fund, and the finds included artifacts of the Amratian (Naqada I) and Gerzeh (Naqada II) phases.