NECROPOLE
Read moreIf you follow the pavement path straight on through the sand, you'll come to a small temple from the Ptolemaic period, in fact a tomb from the 4th century BC, that of Petosiris and his family. High priest of Thoth, Petosiris is said to have been a great religious reformer. On his death, he is said to have become the object of a cult himself.
His well-preserved tomb is well worth a visit, if only for its Hellenistic-style reliefs (on the right as you enter the vestibule). The guardians will not fail to suggest that you visit Isadora, a mummified young girl who is said to have drowned in the Nile. It's not a very pleasant sight.
Retracing your steps, turn left and head towards a sort of half-buried mastaba, to descend into crypts carved out of the rock.
You'll wander in semi-darkness along vast, perfectly ventilated corridors lined with niches in which thousands of baboon and ibis mummies have been found. This is hardly surprising, given that Hermopolis worshipped Thoth in both forms.
In 2018, new excavations uncovered over 40 well-preserved mummies in four Ptolemaic burial chambers (323 to 30 BC). 12 of these were children's, six were animals' and the rest were adult men and women. It would seem that they correspond to a middle-class family from the last pharaonic dynasty.