el-Kab

EXPEDITION REPORT: BENI HASSAN MAY 2001
David Ireland

Diane and I (David), and our two friends Bob and Sherry travelled in May 2001 from Cairo to Beni Hassan with a full military escort of soldiers in pick-up trucks front and rear of our mini bus. Our own Egyptologist Usama (supplied by the Egyptian tour company) accompanied us throughout the journey.

The expedition had taken some six months of planning and numerous emails with an Egyptian tour company. The internet and email are essential tools to arranging such an adventure. British tour companies were unwilling or should I say were not interested in making such arrangements. The replies I received from them were “you will have to pay for the armed escort”; “the cost would be too prohibitive”. Probably, this means to them that there isn’t enough profit in it. The cruises Luxor – Aswan – Luxor are their bread and butter and an easy profitable market. Where is the good old British spirit of adventure!

The arrangements with the tour company and the armed escorts were excellent, and the best thing about it, we didn’t have to pay for the armed protection escorts. Who says there is nothing in life – free?

The journey down to Minya was very scenic, seeing the countryside and the daily life of the Egyptian people at work in their everyday chores. At each major town there was a military checkpoint, our vehicle stationary for a short time whilst the inevitable paper work was carried out, gave the local children a chance to stare and greet us. The route follows the Nile and the good surfaced bitumen road carries every conceivable form of transport, heavy tankers carrying fuel, small trucks with livestock – even camels and still the ageless donkey and cart laden with produce or animal feed. Numerous palm trees line the side of the road and shades of green are the colour of the crop fields, water is in bountiful supply and the fertilizer is the centuries of the nourishing black silt from the Nile. The land is very flat and the roadway long and straight, no time to sleep on this journey, too much to see. The normal tourist to Egypt infrequently gets out of the major cities, so the time is so precious to soak up all that Egypt has to offer.

A quick visit to the Nefertiti Hotel to check in and then we were off to the rock tombs of Beni Hassan (named after an Arab tribe that once settled in the area) located half way between Minya and Mallawi. An army Colonel and his lieutenants greet us at the hotel; the American Ambassador was staying there the day before. Our friends Bob and Sherry from Dallas had flown into Cairo a few days before to make this special journey, and the Colonel was to make no exception, he was to accompany us throughout. Don’t always expect this military guard of honour. It is always an unforgettable experience when something out of the norm happens.

After leaving the hotel we drive a short distance to board the ferry boat in the mini bus, the locals also boarding momentarily stare at us and wonder at the reason for our visit and then pack themselves together laden with their produce and livestock. The last stage of our journey passes through some small villages and few minutes later we arrive at the ticket office. We are the only visitors for the day, tickets purchased and suitably refreshed with a drink of “Barak” (means sweet water); we follow the “key man” to the steps.

A short climb up a number of steps leads us to the pathway alongside the tombs of which we visited four that were open at the time. A magnificent panoramic view of the cultivated fields and the timeless Nile can be seen from the pathway.

The thirty nine tombs of the XI to XII Dynasties, 2050 to 1800 BC, are mostly unfinished and are located on the barren cliffs on the east bank of the Nile.

Tomb of Amenemhet #2 Nomarch and Great Chief of the Oryx Nome
Temp Senwosret 1 XII Dynasty

This XII Dynasty tomb with proto-Doric columns and columned porticos replace the serdab (secret chamber) of the Old Kingdom. A vaulted ceiling painted in a reed-mat style and the walls show scenes of various wrestling positions, Amenemhet receiving offerings from his estates and scribes brow-beating defaulters. A viewing of the photos now four years on still reveals scenes previously unnoticed.

Tomb of Khnumhotep #3 Administrator of the Eastern Desert,
Mayor of Menatkhufu, Temp Amenemhet II XII Dynasty

Khnumhotep was the successor to Amenemhet. Scenes show servants weighing grain, scribes recording its storage in granaries and Semitic Amus from Syria in their alien costumes pay their respects. Other scenes show Khnumhotep spearing fish from his punt in the marshes and hunting with his throwing stick.

Tomb of Baqet III #15 Nomarch and Great Chief of the whole Oryx Nome
Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt

Like the other tombs the scenes are arranged in rows, depicting wrestling positions of which there are nearly 200, dancers and a desert hunt, notice carefully the antics of the gazelles.

Tomb of Kheti #17 Nomarch of the Oryx Nome,
Commander of troops in all difficult places. XI Dynasty

Baqet bequeathed the governorship of the Oryx Nome to his son Kheti. The tomb reveals the only remaining two inessential papyrus columns, part of one which is now missing. The wall scenes show once again wrestling positions and Kheti under his sun shade with his fan bearers and his dwarf. Numerous other images are shown depicting scenes of musicians, dancers and minions bringing offerings.

A full, enjoyable and interesting afternoon over we head back to our hotel for our evening meal and night stopover.

Bibliography:
Newberry and Griffith, Beni Hasan