Necropolises and Catacombs to visit Sahara

Located on the right bank of the Nile, some 20km south of the town of Al-Minya, the Beni Hassan necropolis is a group of princely tombs dating back to around 2,500 BC. It comprises 39 tombs dug into the upper part of an arid rock. The relief and color of this rock overlooking the Nile make it one of Egypt's most beautiful sites. Only twelve tombs have decorative motifs, and of these, four are open to the public. In order, visit Khety (no. 17), Baqît III (no. 15), a little further on Khnoum-Hotep (no. 3) and Amménémès (no. 2). The last two are the largest and most beautiful. These tombs were dug at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, straddling the ^11th and ^12th dynasties (2060-1785 BC), for the nomarchs, the Pharaoh's regional representatives. Their power led to the collapse of several dynasties throughout the history of ancient Egypt.

To the south of the cemetery is a temple built by Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III, dedicated to the local goddess Pakhet 1. It is known as the Grotto of Artemis, because the Greeks syncretistically identified Pakhet with Artemis, and the temple is underground.

The numerous textiles and 38 mummies found during the excavations were put to scientific study by the Louvre in the 1990s. It revealed that mummification was not the exclusive preserve of the ancient Egyptian religion, since Egypt's first Christians, the Copts, were also mummified. If you'd like to find out more, take a look at the excellent documentary: The Mystery of the Coptic Mummies of Antinoe. The site is sometimes called Antinoe or Antinoupolis: on the site of his lover's suicide, the emperor Hadrian, who developed the Pax Romana throughout his reign, built the memorial city of Antinoe, of which only a few walls of mud bricks, shaped by the wind, remain.

With few remains, the Beni Hassan necropolis will be of interest mainly to those seeking to establish a chronology in the evolution of funerary art.

They will be seduced by the proportions of these vast tombs, of fairly simple architecture, with surprising paintings. These include a caravan of Asians, a fig harvest and a duck hunt. Whether surprisingly vivid animal scenes or depictions of wrestlers in action, they sometimes border on the comic strip or the Kâma-Sûtra. Gazelles are depicted mating, and the wrestlers aren't just fighting!

About a hundred tombs, including four underground ones, of great architectural beauty make up this funerary site. Some of the outer tombs have retained their elegant pillars, allowing archaeologists to learn more about the funerary rites of Alexandria. It is also known that the choice of burial was linked to the social status of the deceased and that children and adults received the same funeral treatment (burial, mummification, etc.)

If 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.