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Hierakonpolis
Julian Maxwell Heath describes the excavation history of the Predynastic ‘City of the Falcon God’ and some of the important discoveries made there.
Ancient Egyptian Nekhen, or modern Kom el-Ahmar (‘Red Mound’) is a huge and sprawling site located 50 miles south of Luxor on the West Bank of the Nile. It is popularly known by its ancient Greek name Hierakonpolis (‘City of the Falcon’), as it was the cult centre of the falcon god Horus. In fact, it is the largest Predynastic settlement known in Egypt, and runs for about 1.5 miles north to south along the Nile, and some 2 miles from east to west, from the cultivation on the flood plain, across the desert, to the cemetery HK6. At its height, in the Naqada Period (c.3800-3500 BC), Hierakonpolis was probably the largest urban settlement or ‘town’ along the Nile, and the capital of
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