ANTINOÉ
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On the site of his lover's suicide, Emperor Hadrian, who developed the Pax Romana throughout his reign, raised the city in memory of Antinoe, of which only a few mud-brick walls, drawn by the wind, remain. The site was used as a quarry for the construction of a factory. Nevertheless, the position of the city, at a bend in the Nile, is superb. The site is 18 kilometers south of El-Minya. There is a group of princely burials dating from the Middle Kingdom. Thirty-nine hypogeums of the necropolis are dug into the cliff, twelve of which have wall decorations that evoke themes of agricultural life and craftsmanship of the period. These Middle Kingdom decorations can be seen when looking at the tomb of Khnumhotep II, monarch of the 12th Dynasty. There is a caravan of Asians, a fig harvest and a duck hunt. To the south of the cemetery is a temple built by Hatshepsut and Thutmes III, dedicated to the local goddess Pakhet I. It is known as the Cave of Artemis because the Greeks syncretically identified Pakhet with Artemis and the temple is underground.
The numerous textiles and 38 mummies found during the excavations were put under scientific study by the Louvre in the 1990s. It revealed that mummification was not the prerogative of the ancient Egyptian religion since the first Christians of Egypt, the Copts, were also mummified. If you wish to delve deeper into the subject, watch the excellent documentary: The Mystery of the Coptic Mummies of Antinoe.
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