Nag Hammadi

Town in Upper Egypt on the Nile. In 1945 a collection of 13 codices containing 53 Gnostic texts (scriptures and commentaries) was found nearby at the site of an ancient settlement on the river's eastern bank. Written in the Coptic language, the texts were composed in the 2nd or 3rd century and copied in the 4th century. They include accounts of the life of Jesus and his sayings after his resurrection, predictions of the apocalypse, and theological treatises. As the only surviving documents written by Gnostics themselves, they constitute a major source of knowledge about Gnosticism.

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It was originally named after the Nag's Head public house on the Holloway Road (the A1). The pub was once renamed the "Mustang Diner". It changed to "O'Neills" when it was bought by a pub chain of that name and closed permanently in early 2004. The name remains attached to the Nag's Head Market (behind Holloway Road on the northwest corner of Hertslet Road) and the Nag's Head Shopping Centre.