Nag Hammadi ( ; ar, نجع حمادى ) is a city in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

. It is located on the west bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

in the

Qena Governorate Qena Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. Located in the southern part of the country, it covers a stretch of the Nile valley. Its capital is the city of Qena. Overview The rate of poverty is more than 60% in this governorate but re ...

, about north-west of

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

. It had a population of close to 43,000 .

History

The town of Nag Hammadi is named after its founder, Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi, a member of the Hammadi family in

Sohag Sohag ( , ), also spelled as ''Sawhāj'', ''Suhag'' and ''Suhaj'', is a city on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. It has been the capital of Sohag Governorate since 1960, before which the capital was Girga and the name of the governorate was ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi was a major landholder in Sohag, and known for his strong opposition to the British rule in Egypt beginning in 1882. Nag Hammadi is about west of ancient Chenoboskion ( grc, Χηνοβόσκιον) The "

Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

", an important collection of 2nd-century

Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized p ...

texts, was found at Jabal al-Ṭārif near Nag Hammadi in 1945.. "The Nag Hammadi Library consists of twelve books, plus eight leaves removed from a thirteenth book in late antiquity and tucked inside the front cover of the sixth. These eight leaves comprise a complete text, an independent treatise taken out of a book of collected essays". (p. 10). The city was the site of the Nag Hammadi Massacre in January 2010, in which eight Coptic

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ� ...

were shot dead by three men."Egypt's anxious Copts 'await next catastrophe
(25 January 2010) BBC News In total, nineteen Coptic Christians were attacked.

Economy

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

and

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

are produced in Nag Hammadi. The Nag Hammadi Sugar factory was built in 1895-1897 by French contractors Cail and Fives. It is still in operation in 2018. Egyptalum is the largest aluminium producer in the Middle East. Wood particleboard is manufactured from sugar cane bagasse.

References

{{coord, 26, 03, N, 32, 15, E, display=title Populated places in Qena Governorate cs:Rukopisy z Nag Hammádí

History

Economy

See also

References