El-Ashmunein — Pharaonic, Ptolemaic and Coptic city on a single tell

What you are looking at

El-Ashmunein is the modern Arabic name of the ancient city of Khemenu, capital of the fifteenth Upper Egyptian nome and seat of the cult of Thoth from at least the Old Kingdom. The Greek-speaking world knew the same city as Hermopolis Magna (the "great" Hermopolis, to distinguish it from a Delta city of the same name); the Romans continued the Greek usage, and in Coptic and early Arabic sources the place is consistently Shmun. The tell on which all of these cities sat is a roughly two-kilometre-square low rise in the cultivation immediately west of the Nile, between Mallawi and the western desert plateau on which Tuna el-Gebel lies. The standing remains seen by a visitor today are essentially three: the colossal baboon statues of the New Kingdom temple of Thoth, the Ptolemaic temple precinct, and the standing walls of the great Coptic basilica.

The two colossal baboon statues are the most striking thing on the site. They date to the reign of Amenhotep III (mid-Eighteenth Dynasty, c. 1390–1352 BC) and once flanked an entrance into the temple of Thoth. Each baboon is approximately four and a half metres tall, carved from a single block of quartzite, and the surviving inscriptions name Amenhotep III as the dedicator. The temple precinct has been almost completely robbed for building stone since antiquity; the two baboons survived because of their immense size, and they are now displayed in the open, set on modern bases, in the area where they were originally erected.

The Ptolemaic temple precinct is partially preserved. The principal monument is the so-called "Komasterion" — a Ptolemaic festival building of a type known otherwise mainly from inscriptions — together with the foundations of the great temple of Thoth in its Ptolemaic phase. The visible columns are limestone and were re-erected by the Egyptian Antiquities Service in the 1980s.

The Coptic basilica is the third standing monument on the visitor circuit. Built in the fifth century AD with reused Ptolemaic columns, it is one of the largest surviving early-Christian basilicas in Egypt, and the line of its columns running through the cleared central area gives the strongest visual sense of the scale of the late-antique town. The basilica is associated by tradition (though not by surviving inscription) with the visit of the Holy Family to Khemenu during the flight into Egypt; the Coptic Church marks the tradition annually.

The site entrance is on the eastern edge of the tell, off the main Mallawi–Minya road. The ticket office and the small site museum are at the entrance. The standard circuit runs as follows: (1) the entrance display of large-scale architectural fragments lifted from the tell, (2) the two baboon statues of Amenhotep III, (3) the Ptolemaic temple precinct including the Komasterion, (4) the Coptic basilica, (5) the small late-Roman bathhouse on the northern edge of the tell, and (6) back to the entrance via the southern margin of the cleared area. The whole circuit is approximately two kilometres on foot and takes a comfortable two hours.

There is no shade on the tell. Bring water; the ticket office sells small bottles at standard tourist prices. Visitors usually combine El-Ashmunein with Tuna el-Gebel for a single-day plan from Minya — see the Tuna page for the recommended order.

Opening hours are 09:00–16:00 daily. At the last verification (27 February 2026), the foreigner adult ticket was EGP 160; the student ticket EGP 80; the Egyptian national ticket EGP 10. The photography permit is EGP 50. The site is accessible by road taxi from Mallawi in twelve minutes or from Minya city in approximately forty minutes, on the same road that continues west to Tuna el-Gebel.

An SCA inspector accompanies visitors on the standard circuit. The inspector typically speaks Arabic with serviceable English and will point out details on the Komasterion inscription and on the Coptic basilica capitals. Photography is permitted everywhere on the open site.

Reading list

• Roeder, G. Hermopolis 1929–1939. Hildesheim, 1959. Foundational publication of the German excavations.
• Spencer, A.J. British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt: Ashmunein. London: British Museum, 1983–1993. Multi-volume report on the modern excavations.
• Abdelmonem, K. (tr.). El-Ashmunein Excavations — Season Reports 2015-2024 (translated). Verdi Heritage Studies subscriber monograph, 2024.
• Bagnall, R.S. and Rathbone, D.W. Egypt from Alexander to the Copts. British Museum Press, 2004. Chapter on Hermopolis.