Ihnasya (Ehnasia) or Herakleopolis is one of the cities of Beni Suef Governorate. Lying on Bahr- Youssef, it was the capital of the 21st Nome of Lower Egypt. In the ancient Egyptian texts, it was known as Hwl-nn-nsw ('the House of the Royal Child'), then it acquired an Arabic name of 'Ihnasya'. It was also known as Ihnas, Ihnas el-Medineh and Umm-Kiman, due to the many hills it contains. It was known in the Greek texts as Herakleopolis ('the City of Heracles'), whom the Egyptians associated with the Egyptian deity of the city 'Her' or 'Herishef'.
Since multiple building and agricultural projects have been carried out in it over the times, the city lost many of its old features.
Ihnasya was the capital of Egypt during the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties, in the wake of the struggle between the ...
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