Print from steel engraving titled Portique du Theatre, published in a volume of L'Univers Pittoresque, Paris, approx.  page size 22 x 13 cm, approx. image size 13 x 9 cm.

Antinoöpolis

modern Sheikh ʿIbade

Roman city in ancient Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, 24 miles (38 km)  south of modern al-Minyā in al-Minyā muḥāfaẓah (governorate) and 177 miles (285  km) south of Cairo. The earliest levels excavated date to the New Kingdom  (1567–1085 BC). On the site of a Ramesside temple, the Roman emperor Hadrian  officially founded the city on October 30, AD 130, naming it after his companion  Antinoüs, who had drowned in the Nile near the site earlier that year. The Via  Hadriana, which led to the Red Sea, began at Antinoöpolis. Papyri found there  have provided information about its constitution, which was based on that of  Naukratis. The citizens were considered Greeks, although they could marry  Egyptian women. Under Diocletian (AD 286) it became capital of the Thebaid nome.  Under Valens (reigned AD 364–378) it became the seat of two bishops, one  Orthodox, the other Monophysite. The city survived at least to the 8th century  AD. A theatre, many temples, a triumphal arch, a circus, and a hippodrome were  still visible in the early 19th century, but there is now little to see.