Griffith, Francis Ll. [Editor]; Newberry, Percy E. [Editor]: El Bersheh (Band 2) (London, 1895)

TOMB No. 5.

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Tomb op the f\ <==> © etc., Governor of the (royal) City and Wazir, and X=T Xj

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" Great Chief of the Hare Nome," QC ^-^ Ahanekht.

This tomb is much ruined by earthquakes
and by quarrying. It apparently consisted
(see pi. xii.) of two chambers, with perhaps a
shrine at the inner end of the second chamber;
but the inner end of the latter and the shrine,
if it existed, were entirely quarried away in
ancient times by men working from the back
of the next tomb on the right (No. 6). Both
chambers were decorated with painting. In
plan the outer chamber is rectangular, mea-
suring 18 feet 3J inches by 16 feet 2 inches,
and is about 8 feet in height at the inner end.
The front wall has been cracked by the force
of the earthquake and thrown outwards, and
the greater part of the roof has fallen in. A
large part of the right-hand wall remains in
place, but of the left-hand wall only the dado
at the base. The back wall is more complete,
and the roof is in place above it. The facade
consisted simply of the worked face of the
cliff, the front of the doorway being flush with
the rest, and not, as is usual, with a raised
"architrave"; but long lines of hieroglyphs
were incised on either side and upon the lintel.
The entrance is 4 feet 8 inches wide, the thick-
ness of the wall being 3 feet 2 inches. There
are two mummy-pits in the outer chamber,
one on each side of the axis; that on the right

is the largest, and measures 10 feet 8 inches
by 5 feet 3 inches at the opening in the floor.1

The dimensions of the inner chamber, which
was entered by a doorway 4 feet 8 inches wide,
are not known, as it was not considered safe to
entirely clear the debris, owing to the large
blocks from the roof which lay on the top.
The width of the chamber, however, was
18 feet 2^ inches, and the right-hand wall was
uncovered to a distance of 19 feet 8 inches.
Of this chamber the right-hand side of the
front wall is fairly perfect, but all beyond is
quarried away, little more than the dado re-
maining in place. Some fragments of all the
walls have been recovered, excepting the back
wall of the inner chamber.

The decoration of the tomb consisted of
scenes and inscriptions, which were all incised
and roughly coloured. With one or two excep-
tions, in which several colours are used, the in-
scriptions are filled in with pale blue, of a tone
characteristic of the early Middle Kingdom.
There is little merit in either the design or
execution of the scenes which remain. In both
chambers there are plain dados, and in the
inner one there are the remains of two false

1 See Mr. Fraser's Appendix, below, p. 61.



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