Saqqara - Tomb of Horemheb

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showing its characteristic smooth and flowing lines and its plastic and realistic handling of its themes. They depict with consummate skill and in great variety the Mannerist spirit of the time, shown for example in its leaning towards such fashionable externals as ever changing wigs, elaborately draped garments and luxuriously furnished rooms.

The entrance to the tomb, flanked by pillars and preceded by a paved forecourt, is on the east side. It leads into the first colonnaded court, which was surrounded by a wall 10ft/3m high, built of brick with a cladding of limestone slabs. The painted reliefs, now largely replaced by copies or much restored, depict scenes from the dead man's career, including the presentation of a gold collar of honor by the King and Queen, a celebrated relief of which the original is in the Museum van Oudheden in Leyden. At the northwest corner of the court is a tomb shaft. Beyond the court is the hall of statues, which contains statues of Horemheb and Anubis. At the entrance are representations of Horemheb at the offering table, to which offerings are being brought. On the door jambs are the name and titles of the dead man. The walls of the adjoining second colonnaded court are decorated with painted reliefs: on the north wall and north end of the east wall are Horemheb in the presence of Osiris and a procession of offering bearers; on the south end of the east wall, Horemheb receiving representatives and prisoners from foreign lands. The maltreatment of the prisoners, dragged in by the hair or at the end of a rope, is depicted with striking realism. The original of a scene depicting captured Negroes (Kushites) being registered by Egyptian officials is now in the Museo Civico in Bologna. On the south wall: Horemheb receiving offerings. On the west side of the court is the chapel, with a statue of Horemheb and his wife (?) On both sides are further chapels and tomb shafts.