Damanhur (دمنهور Damanhūr, ; Egyptian: Dmỉ-n-Ḥr.w; ⲡϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ Ptīminhōr; ; Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά Hermopolis Mikra) is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located 160 km northwest of Cairo, and 70 km E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta.
Damanhur was known in the ancient Egyptian language as The City of (the god) Horus, on the grounds that it was a center for the worship of this god. It was also known by other names: in the Egyptian texts, "Behdet"; in the Greek texts "Hermou Polis Mikra" (the lesser city of Hermes), translated to Latin by the Romans as "Hermopolis Parva"; the name "Obollenoboles" (or Apollonopolis) associated it with the Greek god Apollo, and it was also called "Tel Ballamon". Now it is known by its oldest name, which was rendered in Bohairic Ⲡⲓϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ or Ⲡⲧⲓⲙⲉⲛϩⲱⲣ, and thus rendered in Arabic as "Damanhur" following the Islamic conquest.
