Beni Hasan

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For the Sahrawi Bedouin group, see Beni Hassan.

Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) (Arabic: بني حسن) is a village in Middle Egypt about 25 km south of al Minya, on the east bank of the Nile, with remarkable catacombs that have been excavated. During the Middle Kingdom, it was the centre of the cult of Pakhet.

There are 39 ancient tombs here of Middle Kingdom (ca. 21st to 19th centuries BC) nomarchs of the Oryx nome, who governed from Hebenu. Due to the quality of, and distance to the cliffs in the west, these tombs were constructed on the east bank, but are otherwise similar to other Middle Kingdom tombs.

Most of the tombs have a similar layout, with a carved entrance, and then a large (usually pillared) room containing the painted decoration and burial shafts. They are famous for the quality of their paintings. Four out of the 39 tombs are accessible to the public:

• Tomb 2 – Amenemhet, known as Ameni, nomarch under Sesostris I.
• Tomb 3 – Khnumhotep II: notable for the depiction of caravans of Semitic traders.
• Tomb 15 – Baqet III: notable for the depiction of wrestling techniques.
• Tomb 17 – Khety, an 11th dynasty nomarch, son of Baqet.

To the south of the tombs is a temple constructed by Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, the Cave of Artemis, so-named because the Greeks identified Pakhet with Artemis, and the temple is subterranean.

[edit] Further reading

• Kamrin, Janice (1999). The Cosmology of Khnumhotep. 

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

Coordinates: 27°56′N, 30°53′E