Nag Hammadi

Nag Hammadi (Arabic: نجع حمادي tr: Naǧʿ Ḥammādī [nad͡ʒʕ ħam' ma:di:]) is a town located on the banks of the Nile River, in Egypt. Called Jenoboskion (Greek Χηνοβόσκιον) in antiquity, place in which in the year 320, Saint Pachomius founded the first Christian monastery.

The town is famous because in 1945 an extensive collection of ancient codices appeared. In 367, local monks copied some 45 religious writings (including the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, Philip, and Valentine) into a dozen codices. These were carefully kept in a sealed container and hidden in nearby caves, where they remained hidden for almost 1,600 years.

In December 1945, two Egyptian peasants found more than 1,100 pages of ancient papyrus manuscripts buried next to the eastern cliff of the Nile Valley. The texts were translations of Greek originals into the Coptic language, which emerged around the century III.