Beni Hasan - Tomb of Khnumhotep III

The wall paintings in this tomb have been cleaned and the colors freshened up by a new process on an experimental basis; if the results are satisfactory other tombs will be given the same treatment.

On the entrance wall (to west) the statue of the deadman is being transported to the temple, with women dancing in front of it; below, the dead man watching carpenters at work. To the left (north) of the door is the dead man's estate office, with servants weighing silver, measuring grain and storing it in the granaries, while scribes seated in a pillared hall record the amounts. The next two rows, below, depict work in the fields (breaking up the ground, plowing, harvesting and threshing by cattle). The fourth row shows the dead man's mummy being conveyed to the Tomb of Osiris in Abydos. In the fifth row are scenes depicting the harvesting of grapes and figs and the cultivation of vegetables. The bottom row shows life by the river (cattle in the water, fishing).

The main chamber was divided by two pairs of columns into three aisles with flat vaulted roofs. The scenes and inscriptions are much faded and difficult to distinguish. On the lower part of the walls is a long inscription cut in the rock in vertical lines 30in/75cm high, the characters being filled in with green coloring. The royal names were chiseled out of the rock in 1890 by some vandal hand.

The left hand (north) wall, above, depicts the dead man hunting in the desert. Below, to the right, he is shown (a large figure) watching various activities in his nome. In the third row from the top two of his officials introduce a caravan of Asians men, women and children with their ibexes and donkeys, clad in gaily colored garments, their sharp features, hooked noses and pointed beards clearly identifying them as Semitic; the inscription describes them as 37 Amus (Semitic bedouin) bringing eye-paint to the Prince of the nome. The scribe is shown giving Khnumhotep a list of the strangers. The lower rows depict the dead man's cattle and poultry.

On the rear (east) wall the dead man is seen with his wife in a boat, hunting waterfowl with a throwing stick; in the papyrus thicket are all manner of birds, flying about and nesting; in the water are fish, a hippopotamus and a crocodile; below is a fishing scene. To the right the dead man is shown catching two fish with his spear. In the middle is a niche which originally held a seated figure of the dead man. Above the door he is seen catching birds with a net.

Right hand entrance wall (to south of door): top row, laundryman; second row, potters; men felling a palm; the dead man, in a litter, watching carpenters at work on a boat; third row, two boats carrying the dead man's family to the funeral ceremony at Abydos; fourth row, women spinning and weaving, bakers at work; bottom row, men building a shrine, a sculptor polishing a statue, etc.

On the right hand (south) wall, to the left, he is depicted at table, with all kinds of sacrificial offerings heaped up in front of him; to the right servants and priests bring offerings; in the two lowest rows herdsmen bring cattle, gazelles, antelopes and poultry for sacrifice; slaughtering and cutting up of sacrificial animals.

The vestibule, to the rear of an open court, has two 16 sided columns tapering towards the top. The cornice projects over the architrave, ostensibly supported on elegant laths which, like the rest of the structure, are hewn from the living rock, in a manner reminiscent of the mutuies (blocks projecting below cornice) of the Doric Order.