At El-Hammamiya, on the edge of the desert, are three rock tombs (reliefs) of high officials of the early fifth Dynasty. Some 1.25mi/2km southeast of this are large rock tombs, laid out on terraces, belonging to Princes of the 10th (Aphroditopolitan) nome of Upper Egypt (Middle Kingdom) and the extensive necropolis of Antaeopolis, with tombs of
the Late Period. A short distance away are quarries with demotic inscriptions and two curious painted figures of the god Antaeus and the goddess Nephthys. The name Qaw is derived from the ancient Egyptian Tu-kow (Coptic Tkow); the Greeks called the town Antaeopolis, after a local god whom they equated with Antaeus. According to the myth Antaeus was a Libyan King celebrated for his physical strength who challenged all visitors to his kingdom to wrestle with him and after defeating them killed them and used their skulls to build a temple to his father Poseidon; he was finally defeated and slain by Heracies. According to Diodorus this was the scene of the decisive struggle between Horus and Seth. In Roman times Antaeopolis was capital of the Antaeopolitan nome. The last remains of a Temple of Antaeus built by Ptolemy Philometor and rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus in A.D. 164 were swept away by the Nile in 1821.