Nag Hamadi is an industrial city and the home of the largest aluminum factory in the Middle East. Its most important agricultural crop is sugarcane and, consequently, there are four factories for the processing of sugarcane. It is also one of the largest areas in Egypt for producing black honey and also wheat.

Nag Hamadi Aluminum Factory is the biggest producer of aluminum in the Middle East and the Arab world. Nag Hamadi Sugarcane Factory is considered to be one of the biggest factories for producing sugarcane on the level of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It also has a wood factory that manufactures wood chips from sugarcane waste. 

Nag Hamady manuscripts were discovered in 1945. They contain the oldest Gnose scripts which date back to the period between the end of the Third Century A.D to the beginning of the Fourth Century. In Nag Hamady there is the palace of Prince Yusuf Kamal, a member of the previous royal dynasty (the family of Muhammed Ali Pasha), which overlooks the Nile; it is now an archaeological site.