Beni Hassan al-Shurrug

Location: 

20 km (12 MILES) South of Minya, Egypt

Description

The site lies on the Eastern Bank of the Nile, 20 km south of the city of Al-Minya. It houses 39 rock-cut tomb decorated with scenes depicting local and regional life during the Middle Kingdom. Many of these have scenes of violent warfare and military training. 

They include:

Tomb of Amenemhet (tomb 2): Amenemhet is described as the 'prince of the Oryx Nome' and was a governor of the Oryx Nome. Here one finds one of two inscriptions within the necropolis that help define Egyptian life in this period.  It consists of thirty-two lines on the door.  There are also unusual scenes depicting hunting in the desert on the north wall. His tomb is unusual for having a false door on the west, where the dead are suppose to enter.

Tomb of Khnumhotep (tomb 3): A governor under Amenemhet III (about 1820 BC), Khnumhotep's is described as 'the hereditary lord' and his tomb is beautifully done with scenes of daily life.  His biographical inscription within the tomb is 222 columns of text and helps define Egyptian life during this period. There are also acrobats over the door.

Tome of Khnumhotep I (tomb 14)

Tome of Baqet III (tomb 15): If ever there was an imaginative person, the father of Kheti (see below) was one.  A strange tomb with scenes depicting a hunt for unicorns, a serpent-headed quadruped, a 'Sethian' animal and a griffin.  Apparently, the Egyptians felt that their were evil forces in the desert, and hunting their helped to preserve order.  Others show wrestlers and gazelles involved in strange behavior. 

Tomb of Kheti (tomb 17): During the 11th Dynasty, Kheti was a governor of the Oryx Nome.  The tomb has depictions of daily life during the period.

About two miles south is, the Temple of Hatshepsut in an area popularly called Istabl Antar (Stables of Antar).

Khmun, in the ancient Egyptian language means ‘town of eight’, named after the Ogdoad. These were eight primeval deities (four frog-gods and four snake-goddesses) who were associated with the Hermopolitan creation myth and who symbolized different aspects of chaos before they eventually brought the primeval mound into being. There are no remains of the earliest development of the city and the only surviving elements of the site now comprise of crumbling mounds of mud brick ruins and destroyed stone temples. Several early explorers visited the once great Temple of Thoth at el-Ashmunein and in the early 19th century, some of the columns of the hypostyle hall were still standing. During the 1930s, a German expedition directed by Gunter Roeder excavated the pylon of a temple built by Rameses II, finding over one thousand re-used talatat blocks brought from the dismantled Aton temples at el-Amarna. During 1980 to 1990, Jeffrey Spencer and Donald Bailey of the British Museum directed several seasons of excavations. The excavators found remains of temples from the New Kingdom and later, including many artifacts and a major processional street from Hermopolis known as the ‘Dromos of Hermes’. The town site also revealed mud brick houses dating to the Third Intermediate Period as well as Roman monuments.

Most visitors will arrive first at the site of the old archaeological mission house, which has now been turned into an open-air museum containing blocks, statues and stelae from excavations at el-Ashmunein. At the entrance to the museum are two huge reconstructed baboon statues, their bodies over 4.5m high, representing the god Thoth. These are only two of several baboon colossi, which were erected at the site during the reign of Amenhotep III (Dynasty XVIII).

Another road leads to the east through an overgrown area and past the great Temple of Thoth, one of the site’s main attractions, which was constructed in several stages throughout the city’s long history. The monuments at Hermopolis have suffered from stone quarrying from early Christian times down to the early Islamic Period, but some of the stone masonry from the temple complex has remained in place. Archaeologists have uncovered foundations of the great pylon gateways built by Horemheb (Dynasty XVIII) and Rameses II (Dynasty XIX) during the excavations of the Thoth temple. It was in this area that the re-used talatat blocks from Akhenaton’s city on the east bank were found.

The largest remains of the Temple of Thoth date to the reign of Necatnebo I (Dynasty XXX), who rebuilt parts of the structure and enclosed the temple precinct within huge mud brick walls, 15m deep. Nectanebo’s gateway is on the southern side of the temple enclosure, followed by the pylon of Rameses II and a processional way. A structure in front of the Ramesside pylon contained obelisks, royal statues, stelae and sphinxes of Nectanebo. Alexander the Great extended the Late Period temple by constructing a magnificent portico, or pronaos, consisting of two rows of six limestone columns and much colorful decoration, which was decorated by Phillip Arrhidaeus and Ptolemy I (Soter I). Only the foundations of the columns remain today since the portico was demolished in 1826 and the stone re-used in the building of a sugar factory.

To the south-west of the Temple of Thoth and lying at right angles, are remains of an east-facing limestone sanctuary of Amon, protected by a turreted fortress wall. This was constructed during the reign of Rameses II with reliefs of Merenptah and Seti II (Dynasty XIX). The entrance pylon and part of the hypostyle hall of this structure can still be seen, but the rear parts are reduced to ground level and surrounded by water.

South-east of the Amon temple there are remains of a monumental gateway dating to the late Middle Kingdom reign of Amenemhet II, perhaps the original entrance to the Temple of Thoth. Remains of the facade and a passage of this structure still survive. Nero built further south another small temple in the reign of Rameses II with additions, where two seated colossi of Rameses stood before the entrance. On the edge of the village, there are fragmentary remains of a temple dedicated during the time of the emperor Domitian to the goddess Nehemetaway, wife of Thoth, which was the latest temple to be built at Hermopolis.

Outside the temple enclosure on the eastern side of the site are substantial remains of a Roman agora and a restored Coptic basilica, constructed with many blocks from Ptolemaic monuments and following a Greek style of architecture. Most of the graceful granite columns still stand in the rectangular structure of the church - the best example of a monument from this period in Egypt. Nearby, a long architrave inscribed with a Greek text lies on the ground. The inscription informs us that ‘the cavalry militia serving in the Hermopolite Nome dedicated the statues, temple and other buildings in the sanctuary, to the deified kings Ptolemy II and III and their wives . . . for their benevolence towards them’.

The British Museum excavation team also uncovered parts of the town site of Hermopolis. At the western side of the site, there are well-constructed mud brick houses dating to the Third Intermediate Period and objects found here indicated that the majority of buildings belonged to the wealthier families of the town. Three successive levels of construction were identified. In the Greco-Roman part of the town, the ‘Dromos of Hermes’ was uncovered, its existence previously known from papyrus texts. This is a paved processional street running from north to south through the city and which, when excavated, was found to contain re-used stone from earlier times. One of these elements, an alabaster altar inscribed with scenes and titles of Amenhotep III, was found set into the pavement. It would appear that the Greco-Roman parts of the town were built over the top of many earlier destroyed structures dating to the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. Also from the Third Intermediate Period, over 300 fragments from a large alabaster stela of Osorkon III were discovered, which is thought to describe donations of lands and property.

The oldest feature to be found at el-Ashmunein is a Middle Kingdom cemetery that was also excavated in the 1980s by the British Museum team. Enclosed by a massive mud brick wall, the tombs consist of small vaulted chambers, originally with a superstructure. Over time, new graves were superimposed over older ones to the top of the enclosure. Many pottery jars were found at the site, offerings for the deceased typical of the period, but the graves were poorly preserved. The later cemetery associated with Hermopolis can be seen at Tuna el-Gebel.