Tomb of Khunmhotep

Twelfth Dynasty, ca. 1880 B.c.
The funearay architecture and wall paint- ings of Beni Hassan reach their final peak in the tomb of Khnumhotep. This tomb- owner held high office under Amenemhet II and Senusert II as *Mayor of Menat- khufu* (Wetnurse of Cheops) on the east bank of the Nile. At the same times he also bore the title of a *principal of the Eastern Desert* Just a few years after the death of khnumhotep, senusert III . abolished the no marches' privileges in favor of a stronger central administration, and building in the central Egyptian Cemeteries came to a standstill. Massive architraves divide the llarge cult chamber into three sections with vaulted ceilings. The central statue niche (east wall) is framed by inscriptions and flanked on the adjoining walls by a pair of large –scale figures, a composition which had already been used in the Old Kingdom Representining khunmhotep, each of these figures stands in a barque hunting quarry in a papyrus thicet. On the left he prepares to hurl a thrwing stick at waterfowl while on the right he imbales two Nile perch on his harpoon. Directly over the statue niche (see illustration bottom) the tomb-owner is pictured snaring birds with a fowling net. As befits the dignity of his office, khnumhotep is shown seaed on a stool behind a protective reed wall where he pulls tight a net full of prey. The birds have been painted with such care that their indi- vidual species can all be identified—as is the case in a famous image of a hoopoe, for example. Two figures are shown follwing the mayor . his oldest son, Nakht, and the site manager of the tomb, Baket. The base of all walls is covered by the extensive biography of knumhotep.