Deir el-Bersha Attractions
Opposite Mallawi on the east bank of the Nile, some distance from the river, lies the Coptic village of Deir el-Bersha, with an old church. To the east of the village, at a Coptic cemetery, is the mouth of a ravine running from northwest to southeast, the Wadi Nakhla of Wadi Deir el-Bersha, in the steep sides of which are many quarries and ancient tombs. The valley is chiefly noted for the rock tombs of the Middle Kingdom in its northern slopes, belonging to Princes of the 15th nome of Upper Egypt, the Hare nome.
Quarry
Below the Middle Kingdom tombs are tombs of the Old Kingdom, shaft tombs of the Middle Kingdom and numerous tombs of the Ptolemaic period. Opposite the tombs, on the south side of the valley, is a large quarry from which, according to an inscription which is now destroyed, stone was taken in the first year of Amenophis III's reign for building the Temple of Hermoupolis. Farther up the valley are quarries used in the reign of Nectanebo I.
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