Gebelein (Arabic: الجبلين, Two Mountains; Egyptian: Inerty or Per-Hathor; Ancient Greek: Παθυρις, romanized: Pathyris or Ancient Greek: Ἀφροδιτόπολις, romanized: Aphroditópolis) was a town in Egypt. It is located on the Nile, about 40 km south of Thebes, and borders the New Valley Governorate.
The modern geographic area is known as Naga el-Gherira (Arabic: الغريرة).
Location of Gebelein
Gebelein is an archaeological site located about 32 kilometres south of Luxor (ancient Thebes) on the western bank of the Nile (The archaeological site is known as Naga el-Gherira). There are two hills at the site that give it its Arabic name of Gebelein and its ancient Egyptian name of Inr-ti, meaning “two rocks”. In Greek times, it was known as Aphroditopolis and Pathyris from Old Egyptian Per-Hathor (“Domain of Hathor). The site is not of much interest to casual tourists as there is little in the form of visible remains, though the hills provide a good view of the Nile Valley. It may be of some interest, however, more because of the artefacts that originated here that are now spread around in various museums.
Archaeology of Gebelein
Gebelein is known for its cemetery, where archaeological finds stretching from the Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom have been made. Archaeological interest in the town started in the early 18th century AD. and was included in Benoît de Maillet’s Description de l’Egypte. As well as official excavations, many artefacts from the site were traded on the antiquities market and can be found in the museums of Turin, Cairo, Berlin, Lyons, and the British Museum.
Predynastic mummies
The Gebelein prehistory mummies are six naturally mummified bodies dating to approximately 3400 BC from the Late Predynastic period of Egypt and were the first complete predynastic bodies to be discovered. The well-preserved bodies were excavated at the end of the nineteenth century by Wallis Budge, the British Museum Keeper for Egyptology, from shallow sand graves near Gebelein (modern name Naga el-Gherira) in the Egyptian desert.
APredynasticc mummified body dated to 3400 BC, excavated from this site, has been on display in the British Museum since 1901.
Temple of Hathor
The site includes the remains from a temple to Hathor with several cartouches on mud bricks and a royal stela from the Second to Third Dynasties. The temple is located on the east hill of the site. Items of several Second Intermediate Period rulers include a stele of Dedumose II, a block of Djedankhre Montemsaf, and a stela of a ruler named Sekhemtawy. Hyksos rulers mentioned are Apophis (on a lintel) and Khyan (on a black granite block).
Later period finds include a brick naming the High Priest of Amun Menkheperre and his wife, Isetemkheb. The brick likely came from the fort that enclosed the temple. Fragments of a statue of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Limestone fragments from the shrine that would have held the figure were also found from the Ptolemaic period.
Ptolemaic period military camp
During the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor, a military camp was established at Gebelein after the Theban rebellion of 186 BC. Rebel forces destroyed the base in 88 BC. The site was never again inhabited on a larger scale. Several hundred Demotic and Greek papyri and ostraca of the soldiers and the local temple were found at the ruins between 1890 and 1930—these including the archive of the mercenary Horos son of Nechoutes and the Dryton and Apollonia Archive.