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Heracleo

Ihnasya el-Medina

At today's Ihnasya el-Medina, on the west bank of Joseph's canal in the southern Fayum, lay Heracleo, the great Herakleopolis, one of the oldest cities in Egypt. The kings of the 9th and 10th dynasties resided here, and its role as a religious centre reaches back to the 1st dynasty. The Greek name, city of Heracles, came from the local god Harsaphes, whom the Greeks equated with Heracles; Pliny calls it the town of Hercules. Its landing place served the boats between Memphis and the Fayum, and later Arabic writers even took it for the birthplace of Jesus.

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