Today's program: Temple of Nero, Fraser Tombs, Beni Hassan, Speos Artimidos and Tuna-el-Gebel.
Well as I said, we waked up early to go and see a temple of the Emperor Nero, tombs excavated from the Old Empire of the 5th and 6th Dynasty, Beni Hassan, Speos Artimidos and Tuna-el-Gebel with the tombs of Petrosiris (26th dyn.) and lady Isadora (Roman) and the Serapeum of Thoth (Roman time). So this promised to become another beautiful and interesting day.
In this region, in which apparently fundamentalism is concentrated, we could only go outside when accompanied by an undercover agent of the secret tourist police. This good man, a good acquaintance of Olet, is a good guy, so it quickly became apparent and he acted the whole time basically as an expert guide.
Temple of Nero.
Today we visited first a temple built during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in Techna Gebel, a place situated about 15 km north of Minya.
This temple dedicated to the god Sobek is unfortunately badly damaged and there is only one statue left of Hathor.
There are in the holy of holies to see some holes, where former crocodile mummies have lain. There are also mummies of crocodiles in a room in the back of the temple. And there is an underground tunnel system that can not be visited, but everywhere are deep holes visible with entrances to this system.
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Video impression of the Nero temple.
Fraser Tombs.
This cemetery on the eastern Nile bank, includes Old Kingdom tombs dating from the end of the 4th dynasty 2600 v-chr. until the beginning of the 6th dynasty 2420 BC. There are graves of a family of priests of the goddess Hathor who came from the old town Raynt, 2 km to the north and what is now called Tehna-el-Gebel.
The cemetery has been named after its discoverer George Fraser, who has done research here from 1889 to 1893. Most graves are tombs in the shape of a mastaba with the facade to the west.
The graves contain 2 dummy doors in the Western wall, in the behind two shafts leading to undecorated tombs.
Video impression of the temple by the Fraser Tombs.
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to see more of the temple.
Grave 1:
Nikaankh
His titles: Servant at the palace, Servant of
new places. Priest of Hathor.
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Video impression of grave no. 1
Grave 2:
Nikaankh
His titles: Servant at the palace.
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Video impression of grave no. 2
Grave 3:
Graf owner unknown but probably the eldest son of Nikaankh Hm-Hathor.
His titles: unfortunately unknown.
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Video impression of grave no. 3
Grave 4:
Inkaef.
His titles: unfortunately unknown.
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Video impression of grave no. 4
Beni Hassan.
20 km south of the city of Minya is Beni Hassan.
Here are the tombs of the governors of the Antelopes Shire to find. The tombs are located on the east side of the Nile. It is just a climb up but it will present you a beautiful view over the Nile Valley. 39 tombs of these rulers from the 12th Dynasty are carved in the rocks and several of this can be visited.
Click on the ticket to see the pictures.
The guards here were strict and filming or photographing was not allowed, later we'll see why this was the case.
Through a different route I fortunately still have a few pictures.
The most graves consist of vertical columns and behind that a cultspace. In the back is a niche where a statue of the deceased was. The columns in these graves are different than the columns that we have e.g. in Luxor. They were cut right out of the rock. Unfortunately there are many heavely damaged or gone.
A panoramic view over the Nilevalley from Beni Hassan.
Grave no 2: Amenemhat.
He had the name of Prince of the Oryx nome. In his grave are among others images of the hunt. On the westside the grave has a false door.
Grave no. 3: Chumhotep II.
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He was governor at the time of Amenemhat III in the 12th Dynasty, 1820 BC. In his tomb are also scenes from the daily life but also very important a biography of 222 columns. Here he describes what life was like during this difficult time of the Middle Kingdom. There are also in this grave arcrobaten shown.
Grave no. 15: Baket III.
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He was the father of Kheti (grave no. 17). Here are many images of the hunt for ibex and other animals of the desert. This grave also contains 200 different images of wrestlers. This is very special because these paintings are found nowhere else in Egypt.
Grave no. 17: Kheti.
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He was the son of Baqet III and was governor of the Oryx nome. Also in this grave images of everyday life.
Anyway, after I and my shadow (the man of the secret police) had completed this visit and sat down with George and Olet for a cup of tea, suddenly the guards and other people became very nervous. Not much later a big car arrived, accompanied by five police cars. It appeared that the "new" Minister of antiques (the successor to Zahi Hawass) came to view the site. Hence the guards themselves kept so neatly to the rules.
Speos Artimidos.
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Approximately 3 km south of the tombs of Beni Hassan is the Speos Artemidos or the cave of Artemis.
This Artemis knew the Egyptians asPachet which had the shape of a lioness.
This temple is located in a remote valley in central Egypt and was built by Queen Hatshepsut.
Unfortunately they were, when we arrived there just working on the preservation of the cave and the best part of this site I could not film, but well you can not have everything.
Video impression of Speos Artimidos, the hospital.
With a ferry over the Nile.
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To reach the next goal, Tuna-el-Gebel, it was necessary to take a ferry to cross over the Nile.
Also a nice experience.
Tuna-el-Gebel.
About 20 km from Speos Artimidos is Tuna-el-Gebel.
Boundary stele of Akhenaten.
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Here is a lot to look for here from several times. The oldest monument is a Stele of Akhenaton. This is cut in the rock and very well preserved. Akhenaton had to push the boundaries of the city Tell-el-Amarna and stelae show up on both the east and the west side of the Nile.
Video impression of Stele A of Akhenaton.
At this location, I was lucky that for me were a bunch of Japanese women, who for whatever reason do not want to tip the guards and therefore they did not see everything. Luckily I had some money in the wallet and not much later I could happily go on filming and photographing. Despite the fact that the minister also came to visit here after we were ready, a busy guy this man.
Tuna-el-Gebel, pictures of the graves of and the Serapeum.
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Grave of Petrosiris.
A bit further are tombs from the Late Period. Including the in the style of the Dendera temple built tomb of PetrosIris. The tomb is entirely made in relief in Greek and Egyptian style and beautifully preserved.
Video impression of the tomb of Petrosiris.
Chapel of the lady Isodora.
This tomb is of 120 AD. Isodora was a beautiful woman and she falls in love with a young soldier. But her father did not consent to a marriage. Then the couple decided to get away unfortunately this was very tragically, Isodora drowned while crossing the Nile. Her father decided to make a beautiful tomb. Later, this young woman created a cult. The mummy of Isodora can still be seen in her grave.
Video impression of the grave of Lady Isadora.
Aquaduct.
There is also one of the oldest aqueducts to see, a huge old well.
Video impression of the aquaduct.
Serapeum of Thoth.
And there is a splendid Serapeum dedicated to the god Thoth.
Here are 2 million mummies of Ibises and baboons found.
Video impression of the Serapeum of thoth.
Video impression of the catacombs of the Serapeum.
Today's program was done. Meanwhile it was four o'clock in the afternoon and we drove quietly back to Minya. Arrived at the hotel Akhnaten we agreed with our supervisor of the police to be ready at 1900 hours so we could go have dinner with him.
No sooner said than done. Punctual at 1900 hours we were picked up by him and the three of us walked into town. After about 15 minutes we arrived at a restaurant, where we went by a elevator to the second floor and came into a cozy Egyptian restaurant. Naturally all the people looked at us, simply because tourists are rare.
After enjoying a delicious kebab platter and a bottle of water, I began to make sense of a cold beer. After having paid the bill of 120 Egyptian pounds, converted about 15 euros, so not expensive at all here. Olet was rather tired and went back to the hotel, at which our guide arranged a taxi for her to brought her back to the hotel. Meanwhile, I was wondering where I would get that cold beer!
My companion motioned me to come along and 1 minute later I was in a bus and about 7 minutes later we got out and I was ushered inside the Cleopatra hotel. Then after my companion had spoken with the doorman, I was brought to the sixth floor where I ended up in a kind of restaurant, where many men with long robes sat. At first I was quite inquisitive looked upon, but after a while they lost their focus and went on quietly to do their thing or smoke the hookah.
The beer here was also delicious cold. Nice detail, instead of (pea)nuts you got here corn and another unidentified grain as a snack, which actually tasted pretty well.
After my fifth beer, suddenly my companion, who had stayed down came sit beside me and together we drunk another (of course he drinks soda) and than it was good and we went back to the hotel.
Tomorrow it will be another busy day and we had to get up early.
