Akhmim, Egypt
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the chief town of a nome. The Egyptians called it Epu, and also Khente-Min, after its protective deity, the ithyphallic harvest god Min: hence the Coptic name of Shmin and the Arabic Akhmim. Herodotus (ii, 91) praises the citizens of Chemmis as the only Egyptians who favored Greek customs and relates that they erected a temple to Perseus and worshiped him with Hellenic rites. Strabo refers to the weavers and stone cutters of Panopolis. The town continued to flourish during the Roman period, and its ancient and famous temple was enlarged in the 12th year of Trajan's reign (A.D. 109). In Christian times many religious houses were built around Panopolis. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, who had been banished to the Kharga Oasis because he did not acknowledge the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God, died in Panopolis. Even after the Arab Conquest Akhmim was described by Abulfida and other writers as a great city, with temples which were among the finest remains of the Pharaonic period.

There are only scanty remains of the once flourishing ancient city, among them a few sandstone blocks belonging to a temple in the northeast of the town and a number of columns, some of which still stand erect.