Egypt has restored, documented and opened to vacationers the Middle Kingdom tomb of Meru, the oldest web site accessible to the public on Luxor’s West Bank, residence to a few of its most spectacular Pharaonic monuments together with the Valley of the Kings.
Meru was a high-ranking official at the court docket of the 11th Dynasty King Mentuhotep II, who reigned till 2004 BC and who, like Meru, was buried at the necropolis of North Asasif, the ministry mentioned in an announcement on Thursday, February 9.
Meru’s rock-hewn tomb was restored by the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“This is the first site from such an early period in Western Thebes to be made accessible to visitors,” the ministry assertion quoted Fathi Yassin, General Director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt, as saying.
The tomb, which confronted the procession avenue to Mentuhotep II’s temple, comprises a hall main to an providing chapel with a distinct segment for a statue of the deceased. A burial shaft descends to a burial chamber with a sarcophagus.
“This is the only decorated room of the tomb, with an unusual decoration of painting on lime plaster,” Yassin mentioned.
Meru’s tomb had been recognized since at the least the mid-19th century, in accordance to the Polish Egyptian archaeological mission. Italian conservators cleaned a few of the wall work in 1996.
Some of the Middle Kingdom’s most distinguished officers have been buried at North Asasif, the assertion mentioned.
Top: An Egyptian worker works at the 4,000-year-old tomb of Meru. Photo courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities/Handout by way of Reuters.