Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi is a city and markaz in Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about north-west of Luxor. The city had a population of close to 61,737 as of 2023. It was made famous in 1945 for the "Nag Hammadi library," an important collection of ancient texts found nearby.
History
The town of Nag Hammadi was found on the site of older villages Ansan and al-Luaqi in the 19th century and was named after its founder, Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi, a member of the Hammadi family in Sohag, Egypt. Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi was a major landholder in Sohag, and known for his strong opposition to the British rule in Egypt beginning in 1882.In the city of Nag Hammadi, there is the palace of Prince Youssef Kamal, a member of the royal family, which overlooks the Nile River and is now an archaeological site.
Nag Hammadi is about west of ancient site of Chenoboskion. The "Nag Hammadi library", an important collection of 2nd-century Gnostic texts, was found at Jabal al-Ṭārif near Nag Hammadi in 1945.
The city was the site of the Nag Hammadi Massacre in January 2010, in which eight Coptic Christians were shot dead by three men. In total, nineteen Coptic Christians were attacked.