The site was on a caravan route connecting the Nile to centres of commerce on the Red Sea, and there are Pharaonic remains nearby. The largest of these monuments is a temple decorated by Rameses II. This temple was dedicated to Thoth and the gods of el-Ashmunein (across the river) and the gods of Heliopolis. Parts of a columned courtyard, hypostyle hall and sanctuary still survive.
Sheikh 'Ibada was investigated by an Italian Mission from the University of Rome between 1965 and 1968.
Adapted from Wikipedia and www.egyptsites.co.uk
A group of Middle Kingdom tombs was excavated in the area by Gayet in 1902. He describes the site as follows.
[The site was ] located one and a half miles downstream from Antinoë. At this point, a wide circumvallation of the mountain describes a circut, descending in gentle slopes towards the plain.
At the top of the plateau is a short ledge, where once the main chapels may have stood. But the charred stone has crumbled and fallen away, masking the leveled surfaces of the destroyed walls.
As one descends, step by step, one soon realizes that on these rocky slopes once stretched a whole necropolis district. The layer of sand that covers them undulates, showing depressions from place to place.
Barely etched, one notices the presence of numerous pits.
These pits vary considerably in depth: in the vicinity of the plateau, they reach up to 20 and 25 meters. As one gets closer to the plain, this depth decreases; at the last steps, it is 4 to 5 meters at the most.
(Adapted from Gayet, 1902 pp. 40-1.)
Sheikh Ibada in Global Egyptian Museum and in egyptsites
Sheikh Ibada in Artefacts of Excavation (The Griffith Institute)
Models by site for Sheikh Ibada