Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; Ancient Greek: Ἀντινόουπόλις; Coptic: ⲁⲛⲧⲓⲛⲱⲟⲩ Antinow; Arabic: انصنا, romanized: Ansinā, modern Arabic: الشيخ عبادة, modern Sheikh 'Ibada or Sheik Abāda) was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman emperor Hadrian to commemorate his deified young beloved, Antinoüs, on the east bank of the Nile, not far from the site in Upper Egypt where Antinoüs drowned in 130 AD.

During the New Kingdom, the city, Hir-we, was the location of Ramesses II's great temple, dedicated to the gods of Khmun and Heliopolis.

During the Roman Empire, the city of Antinoöpolis was erected in AD 130 by the emperor Hadrian on the site of Hir-we as the cult centre of the deified Antinoüs.

[4][2] Hadrian also had political motives for the creation of Antinoöpolis, which was to be the first Hellenic city in the Middle Nile region, thus serving as a bastion of Greek culture within the Egyptian area.

[4]: 149, 205  Divine honours were paid in the Antinoeion to Antinoüs as a local deity, and games and chariot-races were annually exhibited in commemoration of his death and of Hadrian's sorrow.

[4]: 206  By the 18th century, the ruins of Antinopolis were still visible, being recorded by such European travellers as Jesuit missionary Claude Sicard in 1715 and Edme-François Jomard the surveyor circa 1800.

[4]: 198  However, in the 19th century, Antinopolis was almost completely destroyed by local industrial production, as the chalk and limestone was burned for powder while stone was used in the construction of a nearby dam and sugar factory.

[3] A grotto, once inhabited by Christian anchorites, probably marks the seat of the shrine and oracle, and Grecian tombs with inscriptions point to the necropolis of Antinoöpolis.

At the north-western extremity of the city was a portico, of which four columns remain, inscribed to Good Fortune, and bearing the date of the 14th and last year of the reign of Alexander Severus, 235 AD.

[12] At the beginning of the 19th century, when Napoleonic surveys were made, a theatre, many temples, a triumphal arch, two streets with double colonnades (illustrated in Description de l'Egypte), a circus, and a hippodrome nearby, were still to be seen.

Though there is much data of Antinoöpolis recorded from the Napoleonic Commission, Gayet's report sheds a greater light on the ancient city.

Mummification was prohibited by law in the fourth century A.D., and so the remains of deceased Christians were dressed in tunics and swaddled with other textiles before being buried.

[16] Gayet's findings give researchers a better understanding of early Christian burial practices and his preservation of artistic textiles found at the site show the evolving Coptic style.