Winter in Egypt, 2024 - A Visit to Minya, Part 2 - The Tombs of Beni Hasan

Our first stop in the Minya area was at the tombs of Beni Hasan.

  

Dating from around 2000 B.C, there are 39 large tombs cut into the limestone cliffs above the Nile about 12 miles south of Minya.  Twelve of these tomb contain elaborate paintings that portray local life.  Four of them are currently open to tourists.  Much of what is known about everyday Egyptian life during this period of history comes from these paintings and the accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions. 

After paying our admission fees, we began the hike up the hillside to the tombs accompanied by a well-armed guard.  It's a steep climb and a good bit higher than first appears to be the case.

The tombs we are about to enter were well known from ancient days, but first documented by Egyptologists such as Robert Hay, around 1830.  By 1890, Percy E. Newberry set out to record the tombs at Beni Hasan, not expecting to find much new material.  Over the next couple of years, he put together a comprehensive two volume collection of translation of the tomb inscriptions and numerous drawings of the tomb paintings; he brought along a young draftsman, Howard Carter, to record the drawings.  By the time Newberry and Carter were recording the tomb drawings, many had begun to deteriorate, a problem continuing to the present.  Newberry's two volumes are available online at the Internet Archive here and here.  Newberry incorporated material recorded several decades earlier by Robert Hay as the best available drawings in some cases.

Newberry explains the name for the area:

The hill in which the tombs are carved is named after a family of Arabs calling themselves Beni Hasan, “sons of Hasan," who settled at its foot, their villages after a short existence dying down and springing up again at no great distance from the original encampment.  Of these villages, ruined or inhabited, there are now five.

  

When we visit a site like this, I usually take pictures of what is interesting, listen to the guides' descriptions and then, months later, spend time reading about the site and discover how much I missed.  This was certainly the case with Beni Hasan.  Will we return one day to take another look?  Perhaps.

The tombs themselves belong to local "governors" of the immediate area; at the time of the Middle Kingdom, Egypt was divided into 42 administrative districts known as Nomes. This area was the 16th nome of Upper Egypt also known as the Oryx nome named after the Oryx antelope which appear prominently among the tomb drawings.

Once we reached the top of the hill, we were met by Hesham, a local guide with the keys to each of the tombs.  Hesham's English was quite limited but he supplied much information to Roshdy who translated and interpreted for us.

  

 

Enjoy the pictures!

We began at tomb number 17, belonging to Khety.  The first surprise was the massive size of the tombs.  The signage near each of them is quite good. 

  

The display of wrestlers in this tomb is probably one of the better known highlights, although the images are fairly primitive.

Just around the corner from the wrestlers is a series of paintings that show agricultural scenes including wine-making.

Stepping back a bit from the wall, we can compare the present image

 

to the one recorded in 1893 by Percy Newberry.  The deterioration in quality on the lower part of the wall is quite severe, but the delicate colors on some of the upper images is remarkable after the passing of 4,000 years.

Tomb 3, belonging to Khnum Hotep II, has some particularly well preserved paintings inside.  (The name Chnemhotep is used within Percy Newberry's books) The exterior portico with its two tall columns didn't really stand out to me when I photographed it - likely due to the ugly steel gate, but later I discovered a David Roberts watercolor from the early 1800s that captured the beauty of the columns and the surrounding hieroglyphs.  If we return some day, I'll get a few pictures of the inscriptions surrounding the entrance.

 

 

One of the nice things about watercolor as an artistic medium is that it easy to place goats and people just where you want them.

 Inside, two scenes catch the eye.  The first is the painting on the east wall of Khnumhotep out hunting fowl in the nearby marshes.

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The second, is the spectacular south wall of the tomb, being captured here by Linda.

And captured back in 1890 in Percy Newberry's book.

A few more close-ups show a few of the details:

 

  

Although another set of tombs was available to view nearby, we decided to close out this first day and head for our hotel, The Holy Family Inn, about twenty miles North of Beni Hasan and eight miles beyond the large town of Minya.

  

There are more pictures, of course.  Click on the ones above  or go directly to the Flickr album with many more to see.