ANTINOPOLIS

modern Sheikh Abade Roman city in ancient Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, 24 miles (37 kilometres) south of modern al-Minya in al-Minya muhafazah (governorate). On the site of a Ramesside temple, the Roman emperor Hadrian officially founded the city Oct. 30, AD 130, naming it after his companion Antinos, who had drowned in the Nile near the site earlier that year. The Via Hadriana, which led to the Red Sea, began at Antinopolis. Papyri found there have provided information about its constitution, based on that of Naukratis. The citizens were considered Greeks, though they could marry Egyptian women. The city survived at least to the 8th century AD.