Athribis is located seven kilometres south-west of the modern city of Sohag on the west bank of the Nile. Confusingly, there were two sites called Athribis in ancient Egypt, one in the southern Delta (capital of the tenth Lower Egyptian nome) and the other in Upper Egypt. It is the latter site that is the subject of this article.
Athribis, on the west bank, stood opposite the nome capital Akhmim, on the east bank. It is tempting to suggest that the temples of Athribis would have been joined by canal to the grand temples of Akhmim, so that on festival days the cult images could visit each other in a similar manner to the Beautiful Festival of the Valley at ancient Thebes (Luxor).
Excavations
The first archaeologist to examine Athribis was Flinders Petrie, who worked there for only six weeks in 1907. He published his findings in the 1908 report of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt. He found a heavily ruined temple begun by Ptolemy VIII Physkon, but substantially built by Ptolemy IX Soter. In his plan of the area he calls this the ‘Temple of Physkon’. Only the main gate in the temenos wall and a pylon were found, both aligned towards Akhmim. Slightly to the north is a less-ruined temple built by Ptolemy XII Auletes, who decorated the interior. The exterior was later decorated by Roman emperors Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. Curiously, this later temple is oriented at 90° to the main axis of the earlier temple.
Excavating the Hebrides