Gebelein

Gebelein¹ (Egyptian Arabic: الجبلين, Two Mountains; Egyptian: Inerty or Per-Hathor; Ancient Greek: Παθυρις Pathuris or Ἀφροδιτόπολις Aphroditópolis;² Latin: Pathyris or Aphroditopolis) is an archaeological site and former town in Egypt. It is located on the Nile, about 40 km south of Thebes, in the New Valley Governorate.

The modern geographic area is known as Naga el-Gherira (Egyptian Arabic: الغريرة).²

Archaeology

Gebelein is known for its cemetery, where archeological finds stretching from the Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom have been made.³⁴ Archaeological interest in the town started in the early 18th century AD and was included in Benoît de Maillet's Description de l'Egypte.⁵ As well as official excavations, many artifacts 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.²

Predynastic mummies

The Gebelein predynastic mummies are six naturally mummified bodies, dating to approximately 3400 BC from the Late Predynastic period of Egypt, and were the first complete pre-dynastic 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.