find-site
Jabal al-Tarif (Nag Hammadi find-site)
Jabal al-Tarif, east bank opposite Nag Hammadi, Egypt · Africa: Coptic Egypt
26.129, 32.216
Approximate location.
Attested. The general find area is attested. The exact spot was never verified archaeologically, and whether the codices came from a Pachomian library is a hypothesis.
Farmers found the Nag Hammadi codices in a jar at the foot of this cliff on the east bank of the Nile in December 1945. The cliff is honeycombed with old tombs that hermits once lived in, and coins show the area was used in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some scholars connect the books to nearby Pachomian monks, but that link is debated.
Source stance: neutral. Modern find reports and archaeological survey.
People and groups named here
- Muhammad Ali al-Samman (finder, 1945)
- James M. Robinson (investigator)
Related places
Find site across the river from the town of Nag Hammadi.
Sources
- Jabal al-Tarif (Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia)
René-Georges Coquin and Maurice Martin; The Coptic Encyclopedia (Macmillan 1991), Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Nag Hammadi Library (Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia)
James M. Robinson; The Coptic Encyclopedia (Macmillan 1991), Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Pleiades place 756545: Chenoboskion (nearby)
Pleiades Gazetteer (ISAW, NYU). Accessed 2026-11-11.
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.