Akhmîm
Akhmîm (in Arab اخميم) is a town of High-Egypt, located on Right Bank of the the Nile opposite Sohag, with some 130 kilometers in the south of Assiout. In 1986, the population was of: 70602 inhabitants.
The antique quoted of Akhmîm, known under the name of Ipou or Khent-Menou on the Egyptian geographical lists, was the chief town of the 9th names of High-Egypt, names it of the god Min. At the time gréco-Roman, her name was Panopolis , the city of Pan, because one venerated there the god Ithyphallique Min, that the Greeks compared to their Pan god. With Coptos, Akhmîm was one of the starting points of mining forwardings towards the Eastern desert. In addition to the god of the Min fertility, owner of the caravaneers, a local goddess, Learned-Isis or Triphis, was adored there as “sovereign of Panopolis” and mother of Horus the child.
It is the town of birth of the Pharaon Aÿ.
The Egyptian archeologists recently discovered with the periphery of Akhmîm a colossal statue of eleven meters representing Mérytamon, girl and Grande royal wife of Ramsès {{II}} after the death of Néfertari. It may be that it was priestess with the rupestral sanctuary of Min built by Thoutmôsis {{III}} and altered by Aÿ, the successor of Toutânkhamon.