Everything about Asyut totally explained
» Lycopolis and Lykopolis redirect here; for the ancient city bearing those names located in the delta of the Nile, see Lycopolis (Delta).
Asyut (
Arabic: أسيوط), is the capital of the modern
Asyut Governorate,
Egypt. The modern city is located at:, while the ancient city is located at: .
Etymology
The name of the city is derived from
early Egyptian Zawty (
Z3JW.TJ) (late Egyptian,
Səyáwt) into the
Coptic Syowt . In
Graeco-Roman Egypt, it was called
Lycopolis or
Lykopolis (
Greek: ἡ Λύκων πόλις),
Lycon, or
Lyco .
Ancient Asyut
Around 3100 BC ancient Asyut was the capital of the Thirteenth
Nome of
Upper Egypt (
Lycopolites Nome), seated on the western bank of the
Nile. The two most prominent
gods of pre-
Christian Asyut were
Anubis and
Wepwawet, both funerary deities.
During the
First Intermediate Period, the rulers of "
Zawty";
Khety I,
Itefibi, and
Khety II were supporters of the
Herakleopolitan kings, of whose domain the Nome formed the southern limits. The conflict between this Nome and the southern Nomes under the rule of the
Eleventh dynasty ended with the victory of
Thebes and the decline of Asyut's importance.
The shield of a king named
Recamai, who reigned in
Upper Egypt (probably during the "shepherd dynasty" in the "Lower Country"), has been discovered in Asyut . Lycopolis has no remarkable ruins, but in the excavated chambers of the adjacent rocks are found
mummies of wolves, confirming the origin of its name, as well as a tradition preserved by
Diodorus Siculus, to the effect that an
Aethiopian army, invading Egypt, was repelled beyond the city of
Elephantine by herds of wolves.
Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf at Lycopolis. He having, according to a myth, come "from the shades" under that form, to aid
Isis and
Horus in their combat with
Typhon . Other
Ancient Egyptian monuments discovered in Asyut include; the Asyut
necropolis (west of the modern city), tombs which date to dynasties
Nine,
Ten and
Twelve, and
Ramessid tombs of
Siese and
Amenhotep.
In
Graeco-Roman times, there was a distinct dialect of
Coptic spoken in Asyut, known as "
Lycopolitan", after the Greek name for the city. Lesser-used names for this dialect are "
Sub-Akhmimic" and "
Assiutic".
Modern Asyut
Today, the city of Asyut has almost 400,000 inhabitants. It is the Egyptian city with the highest Coptic Christian concentration. It is also home to the
University of Asyut
, one of the largest
universities in
Egypt, and to the
Lillian Trasher Orphanage.
The
Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared in Asyut. This apparition is recognized as official by the
Coptic Orthodox Church.
People from Asyut
Iaşi, RomaniaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Asyut'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://asyut.totallyexplained.com">Asyut Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
