Beni Hasan to Tell Al-Amarna

Introducing Beni Hasan to Tell Al-Amarna

Forty-eight kilometres south of Minya on the west bank, Mallawi is infamous in Egypt as the home town of President Sadat’s assassin, Khalid al-Islambouli. A centre of armed rebellion throughout the early 1990s, the town is now calmer, but there’s little to linger over, even in the two-storey museum (admission E£20/10; 9am-2pm Sat-Tue & Thu, to noon Fri), which displays tomb paintings, glassware, sculpture including a limestone statue of a Ptolemaic priest, baboon and pencil-thin ibis mummies, and other artefacts from nearby Hermopolis and Tuna al-Gebel, in no particular chronological order.

Eight kilometres north of Mallawi, near the town of Al-Ashmunein, Hermopolis is the site of the ancient city of Khemenu. Capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian nome, its name (Eight Town) refers to four pairs of snake and frog gods that, according to one Egyptian creation myth, existed here before the first earth appeared out of the waters of chaos. This was also an important cult centre of Thoth, god of wisdom and writing, whom the Greeks identified with their god Hermes, hence the city’s Greek name, ‘Hermopolis’.

Little remains of the wealthy ancient city, the most striking ruins being two colossal 14th-century-BC quartzite statues of Thoth as a baboon. These supported part of Thoth’s temple, which was rebuilt throughout antiquity. A Middle Kingdom temple gateway and a pylon of Ramses II, using stone plundered from nearby Tell al-Amarna, also survive. The most interesting ruins are from the Coptic basilica, which reused columns and even the baboon statues, though first removing their giant phalluses. The ‘open-air museum’ is officially free, but if you arrive with a police escort you will be expected to pay baksheesh.

Several kilometres south of Hermopolis and then 5km along a road into the desert, Tuna al-Gebel (admission E£25; 8am-5pm) was the necropolis of Hermopolis. Given the lack of tourists in the area, check with the Minya tourist office that the site is open.

At one time Tuna al-Gebel belonged to Akhetaten, the short-lived capital of Pharaoh Akhenaten, and along the road you pass one of 14 stelae marking the boundary of the royal city. The large stone stele carries Akhenaten’s vow never to expand his city beyond this western limit of the city’s farmlands and associated villages, nor to be buried anywhere else. To the left, two damaged statues of the pharaoh and his wife Nefertiti hold offering tables; the sides are inscribed with figures of three of their daughters.

South of the stele, which is located about 5km past the village of Tuna al-Gebel, are the catacombs and tombs of the residents and sacred animals of Hermopolis. The dark catacomb galleries once held millions of mummified ibis, the ‘living image of Thoth’, and thousands of mummified baboons, sacrificed and embalmed by the Ptolemaic and Roman faithful. The subterranean cemetery extends for at least 3km, perhaps even all the way to Hermopolis. You need a torch to explore the galleries.

The nearby Tomb of Petosiris was built by a high priest of Thoth from the early Ptolomaic period. His templelike tomb, like his sarcophagus in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, shows early Greek influence. The wonderful coloured reliefs of farming and the deceased being given offerings also show Greek influence, with the figures wearing Greek dress.

The guard may open several other tombs (for a tip), the most interesting being the Tomb of Isadora, a wealthy woman who drowned in the Nile during the rule of Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161). The tomb has few decorations, but does contain the unfortunate woman’s mummy, its teeth, hair and fingernails clearly visible.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009