How the Ancient Egyptian Sculpted the Pharaonic Life, Letting Us To Wander Among Its Smallest Details In the Bani Hassan Tombs
Here the ancient Egyptians practice wrestling, pharaonic children play around you. Other ancient Egyptian are preparing to go on the pilgrimage to Abydos. And some of the ancient Egyptians accompany their guard dogs to go on a hunting trip. That takes you to imaginative steps with the ancient Egyptians to hunt in the desert, fields, and swamps, and fishing. You are also surrounded by pharaonic peasants farming and feeding their animals. And power struggles between the province’s rulers and the kings. Welcome to the daily life of ancient Egypt in the Pharaonic Middle kingdom at this dazzling time gap, which is Bani Hassan Tombs.
You move from a magnificent historical event to another to go to the training of ancient Egyptian soldiers, pharaonic wrestling, carrying weights, fencing with sticks, carrying tools of combat, attacking fortresses. And seeing pharaonic craftsmen spinning, weaving, and making flint jewelry and knives. In addition to the above, the pharaonic priests practice some religious rituals; to launch with those spiritual rituals of the ancient Egyptians.
With the accompany of the Pharaonic carpenters, porters, shipbuilders, potters, spinners, bakers, sculptors, plowers, harvesters, gardeners, and vineyards, spend an unforgettable time with the history. Yes, finally, you can be on a date with the pharaohs.
A shimmering scene from afar appears in front of you, represent non-pharaonic people with different clothes from the ancient Egyptians! They were the Semitic visitors to Egypt of the Bedouin merchants in richly colored garments. A wow moment to live with those who had been coming to the land of the pharaonic civilization in the presence of the pharaohs.
How All of That Will Be Surrounded You In Bani Hassan Tombs
Pharaonic brightly colored drawings remain their luster as if the ancient Egyptian paintbrush had just been raised out of them, painted on walls over a layer of mortar. Their precision, dexterity, and vivid colors make you feel that you are really in the middle of the pharaonic life, wandering with them from 2055 until 1650 B.C.
That means you will not just view pharaonic inscriptions. But these decorations will draw you in for a virtual entry into ancient Egypt. Once you get out of the Beni Hassan Tombs, you will wake up and understand that they are not pharaonic drawings, but their magic made you move to the era of the pharaohs, leaving the current period without control. That is why this pharaonic archaeological spot is known as real magic. The surprise is that all colors used in tombs are natural!
All This Pharaonic Magic From The Land Nature!
They are powders and materials extracted from the ground. Then, how genius was the ancient Egyptians! Beni Hassan Tombs is enough to answer this inquiry. You are in the afterlife world of provincial rulers during the Middle Kingdom and live Serious political conflicts in that period, the details of which revolve around you.
Be In The Heart Of Ancient Egypt Secrets
How have Beni Hassan tombs depicted facts that had occurred during the Middle Kingdom and were not familiar in ancient Egypt before!
Here, the military leaders and local rulers declare their total rejection to being burial next to the kings of Saqqara. Their influence and power over the provinces Enough to be buried in their provinces. They had complete authority over their own provinces, and the king’s influence diminished. All this power of the local governors is embodied in front of your eyes, and you can wander in its heart; it is Bani Hassan Tombs.
A lot of secrets about the power of the rulers of provinces, the system of government, and existing conflicts are brightening in the walls of these tombs. You will also find changes that had occurred in daily Pharaonic life. The drawings appear, some industries such as fabric, the manufacture of virtual knives and slippers have not existed before in the tombs’ decorations of the old kingdom.
Here, you see the ancient Egyptian woman in different scenes. Decorations represent them far away from the official scenes of religious ceremonies and daily life the same as at the rest of the tombs. The tombs of Bani Hassan represent ancient Egyptian women doing acrobatics, singing, dancing, and other decorations of women playing ball. That is why the tombs of Bani Hassan is a different pharaonic life that uncovers for you more about ancient Egypt. Even the Myths of the pharaohs’ minds, these tombs reflect them obviously. That means you are inside the ancient Egyptian mind in the truest sense of the word.
Myths From the Ancient Pharaonic Mind and Scenes From Funeral Rites
Winged animal and another animal with a human body and fairy animals cover the tomb walls; scenes had come from the ancient Egyptian mind to decorate the wall of Bani Hassan tombs.
Other decorations represent the people of the deceased who are coming with flowers to visit the dead in his tomb. You will be amid a mix created by the pharaohs from their daily life and the myths that were running through their minds. That is how will be your splendid visit to these tombs. The pharaohs will host you after the end of their great civilization thousands of years ago. But they left you this glorious history to live among its details today in Bani Hassan.
A Tour Inside The Tombs of Bani Hassan
While you are in the middle of the magic of those 39 pharaonic tombs of Bani Hassan, whispering voices of the visitors, come from here and there, wondering why this pharaonic cemetery is located on the eastern side, contradicting Pharaonic beliefs! Sure, there is a hidden fact!
In the interior of the eastern mountain, they carved their tombs. While the ancient Egyptian belief was that the eastern side is for birth and life. And the western side is for death, resurrection, and immortality.
The western region of Minya, the Governorate in which these cemeteries are located, is characterized by the fact that its stones are abundant in salt. That leads to the decomposition of the body. And this contradicts the belief of the ancient Egyptians that the body of the deceased should be mummified so that the soul is not lost from the body in the world of the afterlife.
The eastern region is more mountainous than being a desert. Therefore, the ancient Egyptian turned to carve his tombs on the eastern side, in these limestone hills where the alabaster quarries were. Yes, as soon as you reach those tombs, you will be in the heart of the alabaster quarries. In which King Khufu ordered his men to go to fetch those white rocks and the work of the great statues in the era of building the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Each step at this spot carries a great history.
The architectural form that these tombs take to pave your way to the magic of the pharaonic life inside them
The tombs of Beni Hassan take the same architectural design and elaborate layout. But with some little differences at each one.
All of them begin with the outer courtyard. It was where the ancient Egyptian visitors for the tomb had rested. And also where they were making offerings and sacrifices. Then with taken the footsteps of those ancient Egyptian visitors, you arrive at the main rectangular chapel of the tomb. To go through the majestic pharaonic columns to the internal chamber. It is the Amenemhat design tomb, the ruler of Minya at the reign of King Senusret III.
Different scenes of the owner of that cemetery in his daily life with his wife. And during his rule and moments of hunting and extracting gold with a great pharaonic army armed to the teeth. Amenmehat tomb teeming with vibrant scenes and dazzling colorful decorations. The same is Baqet tomb, with some differences in the columns that take the shape of the famous lotus flower in ancient Egypt. In addition to the many burial wells in this cemetery. Baqet was the first governor in El Minya. And his tomb was the first cemetery in the actual excavation of Bani Hassan.
Also, the Tomb of Khety, the son of Baqet, who had worked in the same position as his father, was fully covered with magical decorations about the pharaonic life during this period. Each tomb seems like a plane that flies with you to the pharaonic life, but for which historical era exactly!
Info You Need To Know About Bani Hassan!
The burial chamber of Beni Hassan dates back to 2055 until 1650 B.C. That was during the era of the Sixth Dynasty (c.2345–2181 BC to the eleventh and twelfth Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom.
They are located about 20 Kilometers south of Al Minya and 245 kilometers south of Cairo.
On the south of the Bani Hassan area, we find a close temple. It was built by Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose III for the local goddess of this region, Bakht. Now it takes the name of the Artemis Cave. The Greeks united the Egyptian goddess Bakht and the Greek goddess Artemis, so they called the temple Artemis.