Judging by its cemeteries, Qus, north-west of Naqada, ancient Egyptian for Gesa or Gesy, (Apollinopolis Parva of the Graeco-Roman period) on the opposite bank of the Nile must have been an important town in the early part of Egyptian history. This was probably because at that time it served as a point of departure for expeditions to Wadi  Hammamat quarries in the Red Sea. Nowadays only two pylons of the Ptolemaic temple of Haroeris and Heqet remain.