Ahnasiya el-Medina - Heracleopolis Magna

Some 9mi/15km west of Beni Suef, on the right bank of the Bahr Yusuf near the village of Ahnasiya el-Medina, popularly known as Ahnasiya Umm el-Kiman ("Hill of Potsherds"), is the huge accumulation of rubble, covering an area of 1sq.mi/1.6 sq.km, which marks the site of the ancient Heracleopolis Magna, capital of the 20th nome of Upper Egypt. Under the Old Kingdom the town was known as Hatnennesut, from which were derived the Coptic Hnes and the Arabic Ahnas.

During the First Intermediate Period it was ruled by the Heracleopolitan princes, who succeeded in extending their power as far as Abydos. In Graeco-Roman times it was the capital of the Heracleopolitan nome and the chief center of the cult of the ram headed god Herishef, whom the Greeks equated with Heracies. The ichneumon ("Pharaoh's rat", Herpestes ichneumon), a species of mongoose, was also worshiped here.

Nothing remains of the city's great temples, one dating from the Middle Kingdom and a new temple erected by Ramesses II. Four columns to be seen on the site probably belonged to a Byzantine church.

The necropolis of the ancient city is at Sedment el-Gebel, on the left bank of the Bahr Yusuf.