Flourishing city of ancient Egypt, whose site is now occupied by the village of Arebet el Madfuneh. It was situated to the west the Nile, 80 miles south of Assiut, and was the burial centre associated with the cult of Osiris, god of the sun and of the dead. A tomb in the ancient necropolis ( 4^th to 3^rd millenium B.C. ) was once thought to be that of the god, but was in fact that of a king of the first dynasty. For this reason the sanctuary was a privileged burial place. The most important of the numerous cenotaphs was that of Seti I. Called the palace of Memnon, some of the finest reliefs in Egyptian art have been preserved in it. The kings of the various dynasties built up and added to the city, which was one of the most popular in Egypt around 1000 B.C., but subsequently it fell into a rapid decline and became no more than a small village. Excavations carried out at long intervals since the middle of the 19^th century have brought to light remains of the necropolis around the royal tombs.