Iqer was a nome in ancient Egypt, the sixth Upper province. Its capital was Iunet, modern Denderah. The name of the nome was written with the sign of a crocodile. The reading of this sign is not certain, Iq is another option. On the white chapel of Senusret I appears a list of all Egyptian nomes. Here the goddess Hathor is called lady of Iq. Next to Iunet, where Hathor was worshipped, a place called Shabet (identified by Henri Gauthier to be near modern Qena) was lying in the sixth Upper Egyptian nome, another place was Khadj. The exact locations of these towns is uncertain.
The nome is already mentioned in a Fourth Dynasty inscription dating from the reign of the Pharaoh Snofru. In the Ptolemaic (Greco-Roman) period, the nome was called Tentyrites, after Denderah, that appears in Greek sources as Tentyris. Several strategoi (governors) are known.
References
- Wolfgang Helck, Die altägyptischen Gaue, Wiesbaden, 1974, ISBN 3920153278, pp. 86-88