Beni Hasan

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For the Sahrawi Bedouin group, see Beni Hassan.

Beni Hasan (or 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 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, and show the arrival of large numbers of Asiatics into the region.

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 - The Cosmology of Khnumhotep - 1999

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