Ancient Worlds - BBC Two Episode 6 “City of Man, City of God”The remains of the Christia

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 6 “City of Man, City of God”

The remains of the Christian Basilica at Hermopolis Magna.

Hermopolis Magna was an ancient city of Upper Egypt known as Khmunu (“the City of the Eight”). It was was the ancient capital of the 15th Hare nome (administrative division, province of ancient Egypt)

The great deity worshiped there was Thoth, the Egyptian god of the Moon, the inventor of writing, the creator of languages and the patron of scribes. The Greeks associated Thoth with their god Hermes(so they called the city Hermopolis). The temple of Thoth made the city an important religious center during the Ptolemaic period.

At Hermopolis, Greco-Roman and Egyptian culture mixed, resulting in temples to a variety of gods. The most impressive structure today dates to the 5th century CE: the Christian basilica. The 29 monolithic columns of red granite with their fine Corinthian capitals are almost all that is left of the basilica (c. 410-440 AD) which covered an area of 1195 square meters. The stylobate and the foundations of the basilica were built of reused blocks of stone from different periods.

The city had other important temples, among them a temple dedicated to Amon, another to Nero, a Ptolemaic sanctuary and a temple dedicated to Alexander the Great and his half-brother, Philip Arrhidaeus (Philip III of Macedon).

Hermopolis Magna - Al-Ashmūnayn, Egypt