On the east bank of the Nile, midway between the towns of
Akhmim and Asyut, is the necropolis and town-site of ancient
Tjebu, a town, once capital of the 12th Upper Egyptian Nome
and known in Graeco-Roman times as Antaeopolis.
A large limestone temple still existed at Antaeopolis in the 18th
century and was noted in the 'Description de l'Egypte' before being
swept away by a series of Nile floods in the early part of the 19th
century. Remaining blocks from the temple were subsequently
removed for the construction of the Asyut palace of Ibrahim Pasha.
The temple, dedicated to the god Anty, was built from limestone
blocks by Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe and enlarged by
Ptolemy VI Philometor. A large brick enclosure wall surrounded the temple, which measured 45m by 60m. Surviving structures
include a granite naos from the sanctuary, which was fronted
by a pronaos containing eighteen palm columns. The temple
façade contained a lintel with a Greek dedication by Ptolemy VI and
Cleopatra.

Near to Qaw el-Kebir, on the eastern edge of the desert are the ruins
of a smaller mudbrick temple dating to the New Kingdom which was built over an older First Intermediate Period structure. The temple
contains an altar court and two sanctuary chambers at the rear.

The necropolis at Qaw el-Kebir (often called Qaw, or Qau)
contains tombs ranging in date from the Prehistoric (Naqada Period)
right through to Roman times scattered throughout several cemetery
areas. Petrie directed excavations here during 1923 to 1924 and
in 1925 J L Starkey found a papyrus containing the earliest known Coptic version of St John's Gospel wrapped in a cloth and buried in
a jar at the site.

The large southern cemetery at Qaw is thought to have been the necropolis of the provincial capital of Tjebu, although the Dynasty
XII rulers are buried in rock-cut tombs slightly set apart from the
main cemeteries on terraces in the cliffs to the north. The most
important and most architecturally interesting of these are the
tombs of the provincial governors, Wahka I (hereditary prince
and mayor), Ibu, Sobekhotep and Wahka II (Mayor during the reign
of Amenemhet III). The tomb structures followed the basic plan
of a pyramid temple and consisted of a chapel with associated
valley temple, causeway and mortuary temple. The mortuary
temple contains a limestone pylon with a columned court behind.
Several porticoed terraces, connected by steep stairs, open
onto a series of underground chambers, containing the sarcophagi
of the nomarchs and their families. The antechambers of the
tomb-chapels were originally decorated with limestone reliefs, now
gone, but some of the statue chambers are still painted. Steep
ramps rise from the base of the cliffs to the tombs along which the
sarcophagi would have been dragged.