[2] The name Gourna is first mentioned by Protais and Charles François d'Orléans, two Capuchin missionary brothers travelling in Upper Egypt in 1668.

Protais’ writing about their travel was published by Melchisédech Thévenot (Relations de divers voyages curieux, 1670s-1696 editions) and Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678).

References to Qurna, Gurna, Kournou, Gourna, El-Ckoor’neh, Gourne, el Abouab, El-Goor’neh or many other variants in pre-1940s literature refers to a spread out urban sprawl of housings stretching from approximately the Ramesseum (Mortuary Temple of Ramesses II) to the Mortuary Temple of Seti I on the east side of the Theban Hills, including the current place names of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, el-Assasif, el-Khokha, Dra ’Abu el-Nage’ and Qurna.

During the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, visitors and travelers to the area are rarely consistent in their use of the name and anything between Medinet Habu and the tombs of el-Tarif can at times be found referred to as part of a Qurna community.

[5] The design, which combined traditional materials and techniques with modern principles was never completed and much of the fabric of the village has since been lost; all what remains today of the original New Qurna is the mosque, market and a few houses.

[11] In order to stop the looting the Department of Antiquities expropriated the land on which the Qurnis lived and decided to move them to a new settlement, to be designed and built by Hassan Fathy himself.

The stretch of land has been the bitter battlefield between the original owners and the Egyptian government for the last 60 years, because it lay on top of an archeological area, part of the Tombs of the Nobles.

Edward William Lane relates that the residents moved into these grottoes from the village of Qurna, which they abandoned, when the Mamluks retreated thought the area, following their defeat by Muhammad 'Alī's forces in the early 19th century.