El-Kab

The remains of El-Kab, the ancient Nekhab, lie on the east bank of the Nile between the railroad and the river. In Pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic times Nekhab was capital of the kingdom of Upper Egypt, and it continued to be one of the country's leading cities; in the Ptolemai period it was capital of the third nom of Upper Egypt, later the Latopolita nome. The town goddess was Nekh bet, who was represented either as a vulture or as a woman with the crown of Upper Egypt. Corresponding to the cobra goddess Uto of Lower Egypt, she was the protective deity of the kingdom, the principal goddess of Upper Egypt and the goddess of childbirth. The Greeks, therefore, identified her with their goddess Eileithyia and named the town Eileithyiaspolis.