First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1999. High in a cliff at the remote site of Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt, thirty-nine ancient tombs line a narrow ledge above the Nile River. These tombs were cut into the rock face, with pillars of living rock often left standing inside the echoing chambers. The tomb of Khnumhotep II dates to the early 12th Dynasty, primarily to the reign of Amenemhet II. The owner was a high official of the ancient administrative area in which Beni Hasan was located, the Oryx (XVIth Upper Egyptian) none or province. His primary title was Overseer of the Eastern Desert, a title which he held from Year 19 of Amenemhet II (c. 1910 B.C.) until at least Year 6 of Senwosret II (c. 1891 B.C.). This monument is the latest of the large Beni Hasan tombs, and represents the culmination of the series. The detailed analysis of this complex tomb necessarily comprises most of this volume.

This tomb chapel can be seen as a miniature mortuary temple, in which Khnumhotep II was cared for as an effective deceased being, capable of interceding for his descendants and dependents in the realm of the gods. This tomb thus echoes, on a local level, the function of state temples dedicated to gods or to the mortuary cults of kings.

This volume offers new research on an essential but often controversial aspect of life in Dynastic Egypt. Its originality lies in combining research which uses Egyptology's traditional strengths, philological and iconographic, with reflections on material culture and on the discipline of Egyptology itself. The authors are internationally-recognized authorities in their fields.

This book originates in an international colloquium held in the British Museum in 1998. It comprises eighteen papers, written by leading scholars, each of whom explores an aspect of the use and exploitation of the deserts lying to the east and west of the Nile Valley by the ancient Egyptians and their prehistoric ancestors. Dr Renee Friedman is Heagy Research Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.